


Show me what I never knew

by StarksDeservedBetter (orphan_account)



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Honestly can these two keep their hands to themselves, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Warning Aussie slang ahead, slow to fuck quick to fool around, well sort of a slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2020-11-02 02:37:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20593319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/StarksDeservedBetter
Summary: Arya and Gendry have been friends for years. Just friends. With no fleeting crushing or inappropriate thoughts. They are just friends.So why are they fighting to keep their hands to themselves after one stupid comment about how gym clothing would not make appropriate stripper attire?Title.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Readers: Hey, weren't you making Safe With You a long multi?  
Me: Yes  
Readers: And are you just taking your plans for Safe With you and turning them into a new fic?  
Me: Yes.  
Readers: What the f-  
Me: OH LOOK SLOW BURN SMUT AND FEELINGS AND TENSION.
> 
> I apologise for none of this. None whatsoever.
> 
> Chapter summary: In which Arya finds a place of her own.

Arya took a slow sip from her keep cup and stared out the window of Margaery’s car as they drove along the neatly kept streets of Oldtown. She breathed in through her nose and smiled when the scent of the ocean filled her nose. Arya liked Oldtown; It really was the place where the city met the sea, and there was some dense forest land nearby to wander in as well. The nature of this area truly was beautiful.

“Well, this is the last place to look at,” Margaery announced.

They turned left into Old Oak Avenue and pulled up out the front of a two-story brick building. Arya noted that the back of the building looked out over the ocean. This might be alright after all.

“Does this one smell like old people?” Arya asked.

“The last one did not smell like old people Arya,” Margaery said with a sigh. “It was cleaned recently.”

“You need to fire your cleaners,” Arya chirped. “It smelled like old people.”

“Also you can’t say an apartment is bad because there are no hardwood floors for you to slide on in your socks,” Margaery pointed out. “That is not how you choose an apartment.”

“Well it’s how I choose mine,” Arya snapped. “It’s an important factor.”

“Sansa warned me this might test my patience,” Margaery murmured.

The slight whine of the brakes being applied trilled in Arya’s ears as the car came to a stop. She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the passenger side door.

“Face it, I’m making your Monday morning far better. I’m sure you’d prefer this than dealing with some miserable rich pricks who want to buy mansions,” Arya noted.

“I make commissions from mansions,” Margaery muttered irritatedly.

“Oh, boo fucking hoo,” Arya taunted.

Margaery undid her seatbelt and hauled herself out of the car.

“Well, I haven’t been able to rent out this apartment in over a month,” Margaery said. “My clients say it doesn’t suit their needs.”

“Too poor looking?” Arya asked.

“Too small,” Margaery responded.

Arya’s eyes lit up at the comment.

“Now you’re speaking my language,” Arya said gleefully.

Margaery looked over at Arya and let out a tired sounding sigh.

“Tell your sister she’s paying for the next date,” she grumbled.

Arya snickered and skipped up the pavement toward the door of the building, leaving Margaery to follow in her wake.

“So have you ever like, seen some fucked up things in placed you rented out?” Arya asked.

“This isn’t really a profession where you get horror stories,” Margaery answered, “There was a place we rented out that had a hole in one of the bedroom walls. You could have fit inside of it.”

Arya stopped skipping and whirled around to face Margaery.

“A drug hole!” she exclaimed in excitement.

“Arya, I don’t think…” Margaery began to say.

“What do you reckon they stored in there? I reckon it was a mafia syndicate who had to hide their stash because they were about to be raided,” Arya interrupted. “Or maybe they hid a body in there! That’s so cool…”

Margaery stared at Arya and shook her head slowly.

“Remind me why I’m renting something to you again?” she asked.

“Because I’m a great tenant and you wouldn’t want to live without me?” Arya responded with a shrug.

“More like because Sansa would kill me if I didn’t,” Margaery muttered.

“Hey, Sansa loves me living with her,” Arya grumbled.

“Is that why she’s drinking two glasses of wine a night ever since you moved in with her?” Margaery quipped back.

Arya stared at her, then looked down at the ground.

“I just thought she was trying to become a professional drinker,” she muttered.

“To be fair, Sansa isn’t the easiest to live with,” Margaery said with a laugh. “Her compulsive need to clean must be what triggers you to rampage around like a bull on parade.”

Arya rolled her eyes at the reminder of Sansa’s compulsions.

“I watched her dust a fucking shelf for ten minutes,” she groaned. “Ten whole minutes! I timed it on my phone.”

Margaery giggled as she walked past Arya and opened the main door of the building.

“That’s my Sans…” Margaery muttered. “Come on, I’ll show you around.”

Margaery fished the keys to the building out of her handbag and unlocked the door. She held the door open for Arya, who stepped into the foyer area of the building. Arya looked around and took in her surroundings. The foyer of the building was all exposed brick and black spongy carpet. There was a staircase that curved back over itself that led up to the upper floor, and Arya could see an enormous window on one wall of the stairwell that flooded the foyer with natural light.

“Tell me again why you couldn’t rent this place?” Arya asked in awe.

“This isn’t the apartment,” Margaery teased.

“Thank you captain obvious,” Arya snapped back. “Do I look stupid to you?”

“Do you really want the answer to that?” Margaery asked.

She looked back at Arya and flashed that bloody annoying devilish grin at her that made those brown eyes dance with mischief. Ugh, no wonder Sansa was head over heels for her.

“You’re lucky I like you,” Arya grumbled.

Margaery let out a laugh as she started to ascend the stairs.

“More like you’re lucky I’m the only one you can have your unfiltered venting sessions with,” Margaery said.

“Hey, it goes both ways,” Arya grumbled.

She followed Margaery up the stairs of the apartment building and past the enormous window that temporarily blinded Arya when the light reflected off of the glass at a certain angle.

“Only thing is I have to change the name of the person when it comes to more… intimate conversations,” Margaery said.

“The last thing I want to hear is the words ‘Sansa likes…’ and whatever depraved sexual act follows,” Arya said. “I don’t need that added to my nightmares.”

A low chuckle from Margaery echoed down the stairwell. They both reached the landing, which is when Margaery gestured to the door marked with the number three.

“Any superstitions about the number?” she asked.

Arya chewed her bottom lip and stared at the steel number that had been screwed into the front door. She couldn’t think of any reasons to avoid three… She didn’t like the numbers one, seven, eight and twelve. She couldn’t explain why, but for some reason, anything involved with the number eight always turned out to be bitterly disappointing.

“Nope. Three is good,” Arya replied.

Margaery smiled and shook her head before inserting the key into the lock and turning it twice. She pushed the front door open and let Arya step into the apartment first. Arya looked around the small entryway before it opened up into an expansive living room and seemingly branched off into other areas.

The first thing Arya noticed was that the living room looked out over the ocean. She stood in the middle of the living room and twirled around on the spot. There were hardwood floors too, to make things even better.

“Shall I show you through?” Margaery asked.

Margaery stepped through a small doorway to the left which led into the kitchen. It was a small space, with a wooden bench against one wall and a window that looked out over the grassy knoll that was the barrier between the road and the sand of the beach.

“Does it get any better?” Arya asked.

Margaery smiled and ushered her back into the living room and into the main hallway.

“Through here, is the spare room,” Margaery said.

The spare room was a cosy space with a window that gave a view of the cityscape of Oldtown. It wasn’t as brightly lit as the kitchen and the living room since it wasn’t western facing, but Arya still loved it.

“This is the spare room?” Arya asked.

“Wait until you see the bedroom,” Margaery said.

She headed off down the hallway again and Arya followed her close behind. The next door on the left was the bathroom, which was modern looking and had both a bath and a shower. The shower was enormous as well; Arya thought you could fit at least ten people in there comfortably, but why you would want to shower with ten people was beyond her.

“And this,” Margaery said, interrupting her thoughts, “is the bedroom.”

Arya turned around and stepped through into the enormous room and gasped audibly. There was a padded alcove running underneath a window that spanned the entire western wall. She hauled herself onto the alcove and marvelled at the breathtaking view of the waves rolling in. She sat there on her knees for a moment, in awe of how lucky she was, then turned her head to look at Margaery.

“As if you couldn’t rent this place out,” she muttered.

Margaery chuckled and sat down next to her on the padded alcove.

“Okay, I lied about that,” Margaery said. “The day after you’d moved in with Sansa, this place was finished off. No one else has lived here. I took one look at this space and knew you had to have it.”

Arya stared incredulously at Margaery and blinked slowly. It was hard to process what Margaery had just said, and the enormous act of kindness that she’d just done.

“But why?” Arya asked.

“Well, partly because it’s far enough away from Sansa’s loft that you’d think twice about dropping around to bother her,” Margaery teased.

Arya snorted and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t tempt me,” she grumbled.

“But mostly because this space just radiates you,” Margaery continued. “It’s bright, serene, peaceful, and can grow and develop into something creative.”

“That was grossly corny,” Arya grumbled.

She chewed her bottom lip again, then threw her arms around Margaery’s neck and pulled her sister’s girlfriend into a tight hug.

“For a split second, I thought you were choking me,” Margaery joked.

Margaery reached up and patted Arya on the back and returned the hug.

“Thank you Margaery,” Arya whispered. “I love it.”

“Promise me one thing,” Margaery said.

Arya separated herself from the brunette and looked at her quizzically.

“No drug holes?” Arya asked.

Margaery grinned and reached her right hand out toward Arya’s knee. She placed it gently on her lower thigh and squeezed gently.

“No drug holes,” Margaery repeated.

Arya laughed and shook her head. She brushed her hair back behind her ears and let out a contented sigh.

“So, how do you plan to get all of your stuff from Sansa’s to here?” Margaery asked.

“That is a very good question,” Arya responded. “Jon is away, so he’s ruled out.”

“And Sansa won’t lift your boxes,” Margaery noted. “She just had her nails done.”

“She wouldn’t lift my boxes regardless,” Arya noted.

She cleared her throat then prepared to speak in a shrill voice.

“Arya Stark those boxes are your property, you are responsible for moving them,” she announced.

“Sansa does not sound like that,” Margaery commented.

“You’re right, I sounded interesting didn’t I?” Arya teased.

“Sansa is very interesting,” Margaery said. “You just don’t get to see her interesting side.”

“I don’t want to know,” Arya snapped. “So, what do we do about my boxes?”

“Well is there anyone who you think could properly handle your boxes?” Margaery asked.

Arya paused and thought about who she would want to handle her boxes. There weren’t many options since most of Arya’s university friends were back at home enjoying their graduation break before going to their jobs. There was one person who might help though, although it was a bit of a long shot.

“Now that you mention it, there is someone who I trust enough to touch my boxes,” Arya responded in a detached tone.

“Oh? Who?” Margaery asked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Arya finds Gendry’s terrible biography choices and crosses a line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI a doona is a duvet. You'll know why I'm saying this ahead of time later on.

“So why is it so important that I handle your boxes with care?” Gendry asked as he traversed up the stairs. “They’re just boxes.”

“They’re my boxes,” Arya snapped back. “If you damage the insides, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“I didn’t know you were so sensitive over your boxes,” Gendry muttered.

“Maybe my boxes are sensitive,” Arya retorted.

“Oh, your boxes are sentient objects now?” Gendry asked in a tired voice. “What if I handle them roughly? Will they be offended?”

“Either that or they’ll be turned on,” Arya said. “Go ahead, flip that coin.”

Gendry paused at the top of the stairs and turned his head back to look at Arya. He closed his blue eyes and let out a tired sigh.

“Why did I agree to help you?” he asked himself.

Arya bounded up two of the steps and joined him at the top of the staircase.

“Because you knew I’d key your car if you didn’t,” she said with a shrug.

The setting sun filled the sky with a dazzling orange glow, with streaks of pink bursting through the canvas of the sky. The light of the evening flooded the stairwell, just like the light of the day had, except it made Arya focus on things she normally wouldn’t. Like Gendry’s face, and how the darkening light made his jaw look more defined as the lines of his face darkened. It also made his stubble look a little more grown instead of a three-day growth. But the light mainly affected his eyes. The orange danced against those deep blue irises and created a contrast that Arya couldn’t take her eyes off of.

Gendry must have caught her staring, because his face contorted into a funny little look.

“What are you looking at?” he asked.

“You have something weird on your face,” Arya snapped back.

“I do not,” Gendry said.

“You do,” Arya replied.

She stroked her right hand along her chin while balancing the boxes she was carrying in her left.

“What’s going on with this?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Gendry asked.

“Are you growing a beard, or are you going for the ‘I’m thirteen’ look?” Arya asked.

“Arya, you can’t grow a beard in four days,” Gendry said.

Arya shrugged at his response.

“You should have started earlier then, stupid,” she retorted.

“I don’t think…” Gendry began to say.

“You’re not going to be getting any pussy looking like that,” Arya continued. “Either shave those pubes off or grow a proper beard. And condition that shit too. Girls hate it if you leave their thighs feeling like an echidna went down on them.”

“Arya, what…” Gendry tried to say.

“Honestly, take a leaf out of Jon’s book. His beard is great. No wonder he and Ygritte lasted so long. And have you seen his new girlfriend? Oh my god, talk about hoooooot,” Arya rambled.

“I don’t…” Gendry kept trying to get a word in, but it was useless.

“Seriously, either grow a full beard or lose it. I’ll shave the fucker off if it looks shit,” Arya declared.

She looked up at Gendry, who was staring at her in shock.

“What are you gawking at? Standing there ain’t going to move my boxes any faster,” she grumbled. “Come on, stupid.”

Arya moved past him onto the landing and walked into her front door, which she had propped open with a doorstop. Gendry followed her into the living room, where they were piling all of her boxes.

“Could you not call me that?” he asked.

“Call you what?” Arya asked.

She slid the box she was carrying onto the wall that she was creating.

“That name,” Gendry grunted.

“For fuck's sake, could you be any more vague?” Arya asked. “Which name?”

“Stupid,” Gendry murmured.

Arya snorted a laugh and put her hands on her hips.

“Does it offend you?” she asked.

“No, just… I don’t like it,” Gendry said.

“First rule of nicknames; Never say you don’t like them, otherwise they stick,” Arya chirped. “Come on stupid, we’re not done touching my boxes yet.”

“But I’m tired,” Gendry whined.

“Oh, get over it,” Arya cried dramatically. “You have no endurance, my god. You’re a two-trip chump.”

“I think it’s called two-pump chump,” Gendry corrected.

“Oh, you wish you could pump my boxes,” Arya snapped back.

She heard Gendry make a choking sound, followed by a dull thud and a string of muttered curses. She loved fucking with him, on the rare occasions they got to hang out. It was strange; they had known each other for five years, yet it felt like she hardly knew him.

“So is that confirmation?” Arya asked.

“That is the opposite of confirmation!” Gendry yelped.

Arya turned her head and saw him standing there, red in the face, with a flustered and panicked look on his face.

“Yeah, you’re right, that pubes beard is a big no,” Arya teased.

“It is not a pubes beard!” Gendry growled.

“Whatever you say, stupid,” Arya said nonchalantly.

“How can someone so small be such a big pain in my arse…” Gendry muttered softly.

She was sure she wasn’t meant to hear that, but Arya grinned broadly when she did. Gendry saw her grin and groaned audibly. She was about to make his evening hell.

—

The sun had set over the ocean by the time their pizza arrived. Arya sat in the middle of her living room, perched on a cushion, while Gendry sat near to the kitchen entrance, with his back to the wall. Arya finished the crust she had in her hand before she shut the lid of her pizza box and put her arms back behind her, then leaned backwards and put her weight into her hands so she was in a reclined sitting position She stretched her legs out in front of her and began to tap her feet together in an irregular rhythm.

“So, Jon told me you broke your phone,” she commented.

Gendry looked up from his pizza box. He had cheese running from his lips back down into the box, where the slice he was eating was surely laying.

“Oh yeah,” Gendry said with his mouth full.

“How’d you manage that one?” Arya asked.

Gendry licked his lips and twirled the loose cheese around his finger, then popped it between his lips and sucked the cheese off of it. Arya had to force herself not to replay that image over and over again in her head.

“Well, it’s kind of a dumb story,” he said.

“A dumb story to go with a dumb idiot,” Arya grumbled.

“Whatever,” Gendry grunted. “I went to get coffee with Jon, and we were walking on this footpath. People had been complaining it was uneven for ages, but I never noticed. Anyway, I trip on it right and drop my phone, and the screen cracks. I swear, modern companies build their things to break. But it still works, so that’s a plus!”

“Let me get this right,” Arya said.

She reached out and grabbed her drink bottle and took a long drink of water.

“So you dropped your phone, by tripping over a pavement, and you haven’t gotten the screen fixed?” Arya asked. “Did you do it yesterday or something?”

“Nah, I did it months ago,” Gendry said.

Arya closed her eyes and slapped her left palm into her forehead. The contact made a sharp crack and Arya immediately regretted how hard she hit herself. She just prayed that a hand print wouldn’t develop.

“You’re an idiot,” she grumbled.

“What?” Gendry asked.

“You can get phone screens fixed,” Arya stated. “And you can buy a tempered glass cover so that the glass doesn’t get damaged when you drop them. How bad is the crack?”

Gendry looked at her, then he fished his phone out of his pocket and slid it across the hardwood floor to her. Arya snatched it off of the floor and held it in her hands. The crack was in the top right-hand corner and thankfully hadn’t spread further down the screen of Gendry’s phone, but the impact had still created a fair scuff on his phone.

“Stupid,” Arya muttered. She was about to hand his phone back, but the screen lit up before she could.

Arya looked up from Gendry’s phone and frowned at him.

“Tinder hey?” she asked.

A look of sheer horror crossed Gendry’s face when she said the word “Tinder.” He moved himself so he was on all fours and crawled toward Arya.

“Give that back,” he grumbled.

“Oh no, I am seeing your profile,” Arya taunted.

“Arya, give it!” Gendry warned.

Arya tapped on his phone and opened Tinder. Gendry lunged for her, but Arya was too quick. She put her foot into his chest and rolled her legs so she knocked him down onto the floor. Gendry grunted when she kicked him and recoiled from her.

“First, I want to see what shit is on your profile, then we’re going to talk about this bitch,” Arya said with a giggle. She opened up Gendry’s profile and laughed aloud when she saw what he had written.

“Are you serious?” Arya cackled.

Gendry got up from the floor and glared at her with a cold fury.

“Give it back,” he growled.

“Oh my god, don’t be such a downer,” Arya said with glee. “Don’t drop it this time.”

She tossed her phone back to Gendry and was somewhat surprised when he caught it effortlessly.

“Happy now?” Gendry asked.

“I mean… She’s cute, but she needs a name change,” Arya said.

“What’s wrong with Nymeria?” Gendry asked. “I like it. It’s cute.”

“I’m glad you like it, because that’s the name of all my pets,” Arya stated. “So she has to change it.”

“Well, I’ve never had a pet called Nymeria,” Gendry said. “So I think she can keep it.”

“No, she has to change it,” Arya demanded. “That’s my name!”

“I thought your name was Arya?” Gendry teased.

“Shut up,” Arya snapped. “You know what I mean.”

“Clearly I don’t,” Gendry said.

“Well, it’s my name,” Arya demanded.

“Wait, are you… are you jealous?” Gendry asked.

“Jealous?” Arya repeated. “What would I be jealous of?”

“Her name,” Gendry said. “I’m sure you wouldn’t care if her name was Kaitlyn.”

“That’s very close to my mother’s name,” Arya pointed out.

“Georgie?” Gendry asked.

“Sounds like a little boy’s name,” Arya replied.

“What about…” Gendry began to say.

“All your names suck,” Arya snarled. “She’s using my name. I hate it.”

“Are you sure you’re not just jealous she is named Nymeria?” Gendry asked.

“All my pets were named Nymeria, Gendry,” Arya pointed out.

“You can’t give all your pets the same name,” Gendry replied.

“What law says I can’t?” Arya argued back.

“How did you even keep track of them?” Gendry asked.

“I numbered them,” Arya said in a matter-of-fact voice.

“You numbered them,” Gendry repeated.

“Yeah? Why, what would you do?” Arya asked.

“I dunno, maybe give them different names?” Gendry responded.

“What if I like the name Nymeria?” Arya said.

“It sounds like you have an obsession with the name Arya,” Gendry pointed out. “Why not just change your name to Nymeria?”

“If I wanted to be named Nymeria, I’d just go and get a name change. That’s how names work, stupid,” Arya snapped. “Besides, I like Arya thank you very much.”

“I don’t think it’s that easy,” Gendry pointed out.

Arya bit her tongue. She wanted to tear into him about his choices in women and their names, but she was also confused as to why she was getting so defensive. It’s not like she was jealous that Gendry was on Tinder, and she wasn’t. No, not at all. Why would she be jealous of that?

“What would you know?” Arya asked.

“I know you’re jealous,” Gendry said.

“Yeah well, you won’t get on a date with her,” Arya argued back.

“Oh, yeah?” Gendry asked. “Want to bet?”

“Yeah, she’ll see your pubes beard and run for the hills,” Arya snapped back.

“Maybe it’ll have grown by then,” Gendry said.

“Yeah well, make sure you don’t get her too drunk so that her beer goggles think you’re attractive,” Arya said. “You don’t want to get her home and have her be halfway through jacking you off drunk and then she passes out.”

“Why would she be jacking me off drunk?” Gendry asked.

“I dunno, maybe you’re into that?” Arya asked.

Gendry shook his head and rolled his eyes at her.

“I’m not,” he mumbled.

“What? You don’t want a girl to touch your dick?” Arya asked.

“No, I…” Gendry began to say.

“Why did you even swipe right on her?” Arya asked. “What stood out?”

“Arya, I dunno,” Gendry replied.

“I knew it,” Arya growled. “I fucking knew it. You couldn’t even give two shits about her name or who she is. You just want a hot girl to fuck and forget about the next day.”

The look that crossed Gendry’s face told her she’d struck a nerve. Gendry looked down at the floor, then got up to his feet without saying a word to her.

“Where are you going?” Arya asked.

“Home,” Gendry replied.

“But what about the pizzas?” Arya asked.

“Do whatever the fuck you want with them,” Gendry snapped back.

He jammed his phone into his pocket and walked angrily to the door. He reached back once he was through the frame and slammed it shut. Arya stared at the door and felt her anger bubble to the surface. Fuck him. If he couldn’t take some lighthearted teasing, he just needed to harden up. But there was a part of her who wished she could take back what she had said. She had reacted on instinct instead of thinking about what she was saying. Sansa had told her often that sometimes what she thought was funny was actually quite hurtful, and it wasn’t good that she just passed it off as people being too soft to deal with her comments. Arya’s anger simmered back down and all she felt was guilt. She hadn’t meant to hurt Gendry, especially after he’d just helped her move her shit in. And she had planned to ask him for his help again. Arya sighed and curled her hands into fists, then brought them down on the hardwood floors over and over until her hands were numb from pain. Only then did she uncurl her hands and stared at the nail marks in her palms, which were smarting as her hands turned red from the repeated impact.

She needed a punching bag.

Arya sighed and got to her feet. She kicked her pizza box along the floor into the kitchen and heard it thud against the drawers that ran along the far wall. She bent over and picked up the cushion she was sitting on, then hurled it as hard as she could into the floor. Once she’d gotten her anger out, she took a deep breath in, closed her eyes and then slowly exhaled.

She could fix this.

—

Gendry kicked his shoes off after closing the door to his flat behind him. He tossed his keys onto the table by the door and walked along the hallway then turned into the bathroom. He clicked the light on and stepped up to the basin, then turned the taps on and pooled cool water in his hands before he splashed it onto his face.

He knew helping Arya out was a bad idea. She was Jon’s little sister, and she always had a penchant for mischief. But what he hadn’t expected was verbal barbs that had cut him deep. He didn’t like how she mocked him and called him stupid, and he hadn’t appreciated her implications that he was just looking for an easy one-night stand. That wasn’t him. He turned the tap off and placed his hands either side of the basin and then looked up at himself. He tried to picture himself with a fuller beard, black as night. It made him look fierce and strong, but also a bit ridiculous. But what annoyed him more was how right Arya was. His stubble looked awkward. It was patchy, with his cheeks having barely any growth compared to his jawline.

But he wasn’t going to dwell on what Arya had said. Gendry pushed off of the basin and wandered through to his bedroom. He fished his phone out of his pocket and tossed it onto his bed, then unbuttoned his jeans and pulled them down to his ankles. He stepped out of them and flicked them against his bedroom wall, then pulled his shirt up over his head so he was left in just his socks and his boxer briefs. Gendry pulled the doona back and slid under the covers, then rolled onto his stomach and picked up his phone with his left hand. He could picture Arya taunting him about wearing socks to bed, but he really couldn’t care what she had to say or think.

The higher powers of the world had a different idea, however. Gendry’s phone vibrated with a text notification, and lo-and-behold it was from Arya.

Arya  
  
Hey. I fucked up, didn't I?

Gendry stared at the screen of his phone and grit his teeth. He was tempted to ignore her and go to sleep. But he knew that if he did there would be escalation. Hell, she’d probably break in and kick him awake just to talk over their little dispute. Sometimes it was a good quality of hers to never want to leave an argument unresolved, but other times it was flat out irritating. Gendry sighed and dropped his forehead into his pillow and then got to work on being less of an ass to her.

Arya  
  
Yeah, a bit. I shouldn’t have snapped like that  
  
No, you should have. I went too far, hey  
  
Just hit a sore spot. Don’t stress it  
  
Is it shit about your dad?

Gendry groaned and shut his eyes. Of course she remembered that bloody drunken conversation where he’d bleated about his father being a drunken womaniser and how he was never going to be like that. Sometimes he liked her sharp memory, other times he hated it.

Arya  
  
Yeah  
  
Fuck, I should have remembered. Sorry  
  
It’s fine, we all forget things.  
  
So you’re not mad?

Of course Gendry was mad. He was less mad now compared to an hour ago, but he hadn’t fully cooled off yet.

Arya  
  
No  
  
That seems like you’re still mad at me  
  
Arya...  
  
Sorry. So what do I do about these pizzas?

Gendry blanked for a moment. What pizzas? Then he remembered how he had just left his half-eaten in her apartment, which didn’t have a fridge in it. His stomach grumbled at the memory of the abandoned food. Gods be damned, this wasn’t his day.

Arya  
  
Eat them maybe?  
  
But I’m not that hungry. And I don’t have a fridge  
  
Leave them outside. It’s cold tonight  
  
Okay, I might have a wolf tattoo but that doesn’t mean I am one  
  
Could have fooled me  
  
Arya is typing...

When those three dots appeared, Gendry held his breath. His last comment may have reignited the sparring match that occurred between them on a regular occasion, and that was the last thing he wanted to deal with right now.

Arya  
  
Can I apologise properly?  
  
I didn’t know you could do that  
  
Shut up. I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean any of it.  
  
You’re a great guy and you’ll get a date with that Nymeria girl.  
  
And I hope she doesn’t just jack you off while drunk. That’d be shit

Gendry ran a hand through his hair and then rubbed the right side of his face. At least their argument hadn’t resumed. That was a positive.

Arya  
  
Thanks Arya. I’m sorry for snapping too. Shouldn’t have done that  
  
It’s okay. It happens  
  
Well, let’s hope a drunken hand job won’t be all that happens with you and her.  
  
You assume we’re going to get drunk. Or do anything like that  
  
I mean, I wouldn’t have to be drunk to jack you off  
  
Right. Thanks for that. Goodnight.

Gendry set his phone down onto the dresser and plugged the charger into the charging port. He rolled onto his side and laid his head to rest on his pillow and shut his eyes. Try as he might to empty his head and wind down, he couldn’t help but replay the words Arya said over and over. She wouldn’t have to be drunk to jack him off. Did that mean she’d thought about it? Oh gods, now he was thinking about that. And he definitely couldn’t think about that. He could feel his cheeks burning with a shameful blush. When they had gotten close previously, things had gotten complicated. And complicated meant Arya running for the hills and forgetting he existed for over a year. Gendry didn’t want to go through that again. He didn’t think he could handle that again. Not the rejection, but the abandonment of someone he was close to. It brought up some old wounds from the past, wounds that hadn’t healed fully.

Why oh why did he have to get hung up on a Stark?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to welt-verbessererin on Tumblr for betaing this!  
A HUGE thank you to the always amazing crossingwinter who shared how to get the texting conversations in fics with me. Honestly this lady is amazing, and if you haven't read her Gendrya fics you absolutely should! You can find the link for how to do the texts [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6434845/chapters/14729722)  
Come find me on tumblr [here](https://starks-deserved-better.tumblr.com/)! Feel free to leave me asks with requests or suggestions!  
And a final thank you to everyone who left a comment, bookmarked, subscribed, left a kudos or even just read this! You guys are amazing and so supportive <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which Gendry goes inside Arya’s boxes and gets a surprise_

There was an awkward tension in Arya’s living room the day after she and Gendry had their argument over some stupid girl on Tinder. Arya glanced up at Gendry, who was unpacking her books out of one of her boxes and was placing them in neat, ankle-high piles. She noticed he’d shaved since they last saw each other, which amused her. But it also made her worry about the impact that her words had on him, and how deeply she’d cut with some of her remarks the day before. Arya sighed and looked back down at the clutter she’d made around her. Sansa may have given her a few too many kitchen utensils.

“You want some spoons?” she asked.

She reached out and grabbed a stack of them that had been bound with an elastic band.

Gendry turned his head and looked at her. One of his eyebrows was slightly arched and the corner of his mouth was upturned with an amused smile.

“For a minute there, I thought you asked if I wanted to spoon,” he quipped.

Arya hurled the spoons at him. He ducks his head, and she heard them clatter against her hardwood floor and slide away somewhere.

“Stupid,” she mumbled and went back to unpacking her stuff.

She looked up when she saw Gendry walking toward her. She was about to fire off a line about how she didn’t want to spoon with him, but the words caught in her throat when he laid the pile of spoons she’d hurled at him down in front of her.

“I’m good for cutlery,” Gendry said. “And I know the next thing you’re going to say is 'Wanna fork?’ I’m right, aren’t I?”

Arya snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes at him.

“In your dreams, pal,” she teased.

Gendry chuckled and went back to where he had been standing before.

Arya’s gaze lingered on him, and she chewed her bottom lip while staring at him. She hadn’t been able to sleep much last night. She’d been beating herself up about how she’d acted and reacted to him last night. She hadn’t meant parts of what she’d said, but it was just her reaction to fire up when she felt like she needed to.

“Hey, Gendry…” Arya said.

Gendry turned around to look at her.

“What’s up?” he asked.

Arya took a deep breath and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

“About yesterday…” she began to say.

Gendry waved his hand at her dismissively and turned back to the box he was unpacking.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it,” he said. “If it upset me, I wouldn’t have come back today to help you.”

“Okay, well, just checking,” Arya said.

“Plus, your insults are pretty shit,” Gendry added.

“Hey!” she snapped. “They are not shit.”

“If I really wanted to piss you off, I could have said you were bullying me,” he pointed out.

“You’d be stupid to do that,” she grumbled.

“Some people interpret things differently,” he said. “I know you’d never actually say anything that would hurt me.”

“What, like saying that your ass is looking flatter than it did a few months ago?” Arya asked.

“It does not!” Gendry snapped. “Wait… Are you… Have you been checking me out?”

“Nope,” she said.

She ducked her head down to try to hide the blush that was spreading across her face.

“Just wanted to fuck with you.”

“Well, as I said, your insults are rubbish,” Gendry said.

Arya glared up at him after he repeated himself again.

“I swear to god, I will throw my box at you if you say that again,” she growled.

Gendry turned his head to look back at her.

“Is that more innuendo, or a genuine threat?” he asked.

Arya poked her tongue out at him and flipped him off, all while fighting back the smile that threatened to break free.

“Thought so,” Gendry said with a smirk.

He bent his knees and picked up the next box since he’d finished with the one that held her books. When he stood back upright, Arya noticed his shirt had ridden up slightly, giving her a view of his abs. But, unlike all the other times she’d perved on him, it wasn’t his abs that caught her eyes. It was a pair of antlers poking out of the waist of his pants that attracted her gaze. Arya saw that they were some part of a tattoo that stretched down below his waistline. She wanted to ask him about the tattoo, or hell, ask him to see it, but she couldn’t find the words. Every time she thought of something to say, she realised how fucking embarrassing it’d be to ask Gendry to drop his pants so she could see what he had inked on himself. Arya settled instead for making a muffled whine and focused on not dropping her glass tumblers as she pulled them out of her box. She’d leave that tattoo request for another day when she hadn’t just admitted to checking Gendry out on rare occasions. Okay, maybe it was more frequently than just a rare occasion.

—

“So you don’t even have a bed frame?” Gendry asked.

“Nope,” Arya replied.

She leaned back into the deck chair she had set up on the living room floor and tucked her knees up to her chest.

“Seriously? You can’t sleep on the floor,” he said.

“I can too,” she snapped back. “Nothing wrong with the floor.”

“Oh, I bet that’s a winner with the boys you bring home,” he joked.

Arya rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that day and scoffed at his comment.

“Oh yes Gendry, can’t you see them lining up around the block to fuck around on the floor?” she drawled sarcastically.

“Wow, the queue is so long it’s stretched back to the point where I can’t see it,” he replied.

He stretched his arms back over his head which made his shirt ride up again. Arya glanced to her side at his exposed abs and those god damn antlers again. She turned her head to look the other way.

“Stop that,” she grumbled quietly.

“Stop what?” Gendry asked.

“Flexing your muscles,” Arya spat out.

“I’m not?” he responded. “I’m stretching. Is stretching illegal now?”

“You know damn well you’re not stretching,” she shot back.

“Arya, I’m just stretching,” he insisted.

“Whatever,” she grumbled.

She shook her head and wished that she could resist glancing at his abs, but every time his shirt rode up it was like she was compelled to look. She was like a moth drawn to a flame, and she hated it yet loved it at the same time. Arya let out a long yawn and covered her mouth with her fist, then stretched her legs out in front of her.

“Well, it’s been fun, but time for you to get out,” Arya said.

“What?” Gendry asked.

“I said, time for you to get out,” she repeated.

“Isn’t that a little… sudden?” he asked.

“What, me wanting you to leave?” she asked. “I’d like my own space, thanks very much.”

Gendry slowly got out of his deck chair and looked at her. He looked a little wounded by her abrupt shift in tone.

“Was it something I did?” he asked.

“Don’t be dumb, I just…” Arya began to say.

She stopped when she realised what she was doing. She was channelling her anger at herself in an unhealthy manner again. Goddammit, it’s like she was determined to be self-destructive today.

“Sorry,” Arya said with a sigh. “I should have just said why I wanted you to go.”

“Yeah, you think?” Gendry snapped.

“I want to have a shower, and it’d be weird to be in there knowing you’re sitting out here twiddling your thumbs or jerking off into my flowers, or whatever the fuck you do in your spare time,” she said.

Gendry stared at her, then laughed louder than he’d probably thought he was going to.

“I don’t jerk off into your flowers in my spare time,” he said.

“How do I know that?” Arya teased back.

“Because in all the time I’ve known you, not once have you ever had flowers or shown an interest in flowers,” he pointed out.

“Hey, Sansa made me keep the fake ones she put in my room,” she snapped back.

“I promise you, those are sperm free,” he said with a laugh.

Arya snorted at his comment and sprung to her feet. She cracked her neck on either side and then bent herself backward until she felt a dense pop in the middle of her back.

“Hey, um, what about this box here?” Gendry asked.

Arya straightened herself out and looked over at the box Gendry was pointing to.

“I didn’t get to empty it.”

She frowned and tilted her head to the left.

“What’s in it?” she asked.

Gendry walked to the box and pulled the flap of it open and peered inside.

“Clothes, by the look of it,” he answered.

“Hm. Just tip ‘em on the floor,” she responded.

“What, just like that?”

“Yeah, just like that.”

Gendry shrugged and did as he was bid. He opened the flaps of Arya’s box and picked it up, then upended it at his feet. A giant pile of unfolded clothes came tumbling out of the box and piled at Gendry’s feet. Arya regretted saying that; It would have been less work to just pull them out and fold them up as she went. Oh well, too late now. She noticed one thing in particular thing tumble out of the box and felt her heart stop.

Oh no.

How did that get in there?

Arya clenched her jaw and prayed Gendry wouldn’t see it. But of course, he did. Now she was really fucked. Gendry looked up at her in surprise and then went down onto his haunches.

“What is this?” Gendry asked.

Arya stared in horror as he picked up her black lacy thong between his thumb and forefinger and stood up slowly. She’d sworn she’d put it in the box with her personal items, like her vibrator. But no, clearly not, since Gendry was standing here holding her underwear, with a facial expression that made it seem like it was infected with the bubonic plague.

“What?” Arya asked. “Can’t a girl own underwear?”

“Well no, you can own whatever you like,” Gendry said. “I just thought all you owned was sports gear and boring clothing.”

Arya put her hands on her hips and pouted at Gendry.

“Yeah, well, surprise,” she said dryly. “You’ve exposed my big secret.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

Arya realised this was the perfect time to mess with him a little.

“That I’m secretly a stripper, duh,” she teased. “I just didn’t think that stripping out of activewear would be very sexy, y’know?”

Gendry spluttered and his face went a deep shade of red.

“Seriously?” he asked. “Arya, I swear, I won’t tell a soul.”

Arya giggled and rolled her eyes at him. He could be so gullible sometimes.

“No, stupid,” Arya said with a sigh. “That was just a joke.”

Gendry gawked at her for a little longer and then laughed with relief. Arya laughed alongside with him and felt herself smiling like a giddy idiot. Eventually, their laughter faded and Gendry let out a contented sigh.

“You had me going there for a minute,” he admitted.

Arya grinned and pirouetted on the ball of her right foot.

“Let’s be real. I’m not coordinated enough to grind up on a pole and look hot while doing it,” she teased.

“I…” Gendry began to say, then stopped.

“You…” she said, trying to goad an answer out of him.

“Never mind,” he muttered. “I should leave you to it. It is Friday night after all. You have a show to prepare for.”

Arya snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes at him.

“Yeah, can’t keep the masses waiting,” she teased.

Gendry snickered at that comment, then hooked her thong around his left thumb.

“Hey, you’re forgetting something,” he said.

He pulled back on the opposite end of her thong with the fingers of his right hand, then flicked his left thumb downward. He slung her thong across the room at her, and Arya plucked it out of midair.

“Thanks for that,” she said with a laugh. “You can piss off now.”

Gendry chuckled and walked toward her front door.

“See you around Arya,” he said.

He turned the handle of her front door, opened it, and then stepped outside. Arya waited until she heard her door click shut before she released her breath and shook her head slowly. She needed this shower to clear her head.

—

Arya walked back to her bedroom barefoot. She had her towel wrapped around her head to try to dry her hair and was wearing nothing else. She loved the feeling of the cool night air on her freshly shaved legs. It was a strange sensation, and one she thought she’d never get used to. When she entered her bedroom, Arya flopped down on her mattress and picked up her phone. There was a missed call from Sansa, which she’d deal with later. As she laid there, she couldn’t help but replay her talk with Gendry from earlier over and over in her head. The look of surprise when he saw her thong was etched into her head. It was funny, but at the same time, she tried to imagine his thoughts. She guessed that his illusion of her had been shattered, all from a garment of clothing. Then an idea popped into her head. Maybe she should see just how long she could keep this stripper joke going.

She jumped off her bed and pulled the towel from her hair. Arya grabbed the shoebox next to her mattress and pulled the lid back. She pushed her vibrator and the bottle of lube to the side and fished out the black lace bralette that matched the thong out of the box. Arya laid it down on her sheets and smoothed the fabric out before opening the camera on her phone. She waited for the camera to focus before she took a picture of the undergarment. Perfect. She opened her texts with Gendry and attached the photo to a message, then typed out something brief.

[](https://i.imgur.com/uYoHonv.png)  
  
All set for my show tonight. Just need to get this on  
  
  


Arya felt her heart racing as she hit send. Once the message had sent, however, a wave of regret crashed through her. Arya sat down on the bed and stared at her phone screen. Had she just done that? Just yesterday she had been telling Gendry off for looking for a quick fuck, now here she was continuing on with a stripper joke and sending him photos of her underwear.

Stupid idiot.

Arya scrunched her nose up and flicked herself on the knee with her left index finger. She was angry at herself for not thinking, but most of all she was embarrassed. She’d never sent something so provocative to anyone, ever. Even as a joke. Arya turned her phone off and tossed it onto a pile of clothes near to her mattress, then pulled the sheets back. She didn’t want to know what Gendry would say in response to that. She got up and found a pair of black briefs laying on the floor, which she stepped into and pulled up around her hips. She grabbed the light blue t-shirt that she slept in off of the floor and pulled that over her head. One she was dressed, she walked over to the doorway of her bedroom and turned out the light. Arya let out a tired sigh and padded back to her mattress and then flopped down on it again. She pulled the sheets back over herself angrily and stared up at the roof. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself ruminating on her situation with Gendry. They’d just started to be friends again after she’d fucked things up between them previously, and now here she was teasing him with provocative statements. Hadn’t she learned her lesson last time? The last time things had gotten suggestive between them, it had blown up in both their faces when Arya had freaked out and fired a proverbial torpedo into their ship sailing out to sea. Damn her insecurities. Damn them all to hell. Why couldn’t she just process things like a normal human?

Arya rolled onto her side and stared at the western wall. She couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking; If he was going through the same inner turmoil that she was. The only thing she hoped for at this moment was that she hadn’t lost her friendship with him. She felt like she was incapable of giving him anything more, even if parts of her wanted to. She was too fucked up to be his, and that was just the reality she’d have to accept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Snapdragon76 for betaing this  
And thank you to everyone who comments, likes, bookmarks and reads! Your love is always appreciated!
> 
> Come find me on tumblr [here](https://starks-deserved-better.tumblr.com/)!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which this fic earns an Explicit rating_

“See you next time Harry,” Gendry said as cheerfully as he could manage.

“See ya mate, thanks again!” Harry said.

He walked out of Gendry’s office, and Gendry waited until he heard the door click shut before he let out a long, tired sigh.

Gendry had barely slept last night. His thoughts were consumed by Arya. Normally he wouldn’t mind, but he could feel himself being drawn back into the perfect storm that was Arya Stark, and the fact he knew he was getting attached to her worried him. He knew how things had turned out last time; He’d fucked up, and Arya had run for her life. Gendry looked up at the clock in his consulting suite and felt a ripple of relief go through him. It was one in the afternoon, so it was time for his half-hour lunch break. He needed this; Not only was he hungry, but he also needed to sort out the mess in his head.

He got up from his black leather swivel chair and ran his hand through his hair, then opened the door to his suite and walked out into the hallway. Gendry headed for the staff room and was grateful that no one bothered to talk to him as he opened the fridge and grabbed his lunch out, and then headed back to his room.

He threw himself back into his chair and pulled the cling wrap off of his sandwich before he wadded it up into a tight ball and threw it in the bin at the side of his desk. He imagined Arya chastising him for still using plastic, but he also kept forgetting to buy paper bags from the supermarket every time he went. There he went again, thinking of Arya. It felt like no matter where he went, he saw something that reminded him of her. He thought that maybe he had gotten over his infatuation with her, but it was evident his once abandoned feelings had returned. And that was not a good thing. History had a funny way of repeating itself. Gendry knew that the last time he’d felt things for her, he’d gotten way too intense for her liking. Arya wasn’t someone who was comfortable with boys chasing after her, at least that’s what Gendry had found out in her experience. She preferred to do the chasing, and when the roles were reversed she didn’t like it one bit. Gendry had felt like his heart had been ripped out and shredded into pieces when she had literally run away from him the last time they had gotten close.

He could remember it clearly; he’d leaned in to kiss her after they’d gone to see a movie. Arya had shoved him in the chest, called him an idiot, and then ran out of the movie theatre, leaving Gendry sitting there with his head spinning. She’d dropped off the face of the planet after that, and had only reemerged when he and Jon caught up for a beer and Arya tagged along and acted as if nothing had happened between them. It was an odd experience, but Gendry had picked up that she didn’t want to talk about it and so he’d just dropped it. Now there was this awkward unresolved tension between the two of them, and it kept bubbling to the surface. At least, it did for Gendry. There we other thoughts too, most of them unhelpful. Like the one where he pictured Arya in that black lace set that he had now seen all of yesterday.

Shit. Now it was in his head again. And whenever that thought did enter his head, he felt himself getting hard at the thought of her standing there, and him drinking in the sight of her.

Gendry sighed and took a bite out of his sandwich. He was so consumed by his thoughts that his lunch barely tasted of anything. Gendry was no chef, but he used to get excited to tuck into his ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. Maybe he should try toasting it one day, for a change. Or just try something different, instead of getting hung up on the same old thing. Then again, the last time he’d tried something different, the same old thing he’d been hung up on had told him he was an idiot for trying something different.

Dammit. Once again, Arya had invaded his thoughts.

Gendry placed his sandwich down on his desk and put his head into his hands. Why was this so fucking difficult? He was a bloody adult, for gods sake, and yet he felt like he was a teenager in love again and didn’t have the emotional maturity to move on. Except he wasn’t in love with Arya Stark. No way. Not a chance. At least, that’s what he told himself.

He reached out and picked up his phone and opened his conversation with Arya. He’d forgotten that the picture of her bralette was the first thing he’d see, and of course as soon as he saw it he felt himself grow hard again. He seriously needed to do something about this. Trying to block out the thoughts wasn’t working. So maybe it was time to try something else.

Gendry grit his teeth and ground them together. He still had twenty minutes for lunch. He took a couple more bites of his sandwich, and then resolved that now was the time to try his new idea. Gendry got up and left his consulting suite, which annoyingly was at the very back of the building, far away from anything else. He walked a short distance up the hallway to the staff bathrooms, and then punched the staff code into the door. The door clicked open and Gendry wandered in, then shut the door behind him and turned the small knob on the door so that the colour slider above the door handle would show red for occupied. Once he was inside, Gendry turned the light on and then hesitated. What the fuck was he doing? This was so wrong, on so many levels. But yet he couldn’t think of any other way to work his frustrations out. He knelt down in front of the bathroom vanity and took out his keys and opened the cupboard doors. There was a box on the bottom shelf that Gendry knew was filled with massage oil. He pulled the box out, opened the top of it up and took a bottle that had already been opened. Gendry closed up the cupboard, stood back upright, placed the bottle on the vanity and then undid his belt buckle.

He hesitated again, with his hands hovering over the button of his work pants. This wasn’t his wisest idea. Maybe he should wait until he was home?

_“Don’t be a pussy. Be in my pussy,”_ Arya’s voice said in his head.

Gods be damned he really couldn’t escape her today. That thought of her relentless teasing was enough to tip him over the edge however. Gendry unbuttoned his pants and dropped them to his ankles, and then put his hands inside of the waistband of his boxer briefs and slid them down until they dropped around his ankles. He undid the top of the bottle and measured out a small amount into the palm of his right hand. It was no bigger than a twenty cent piece, but it was enough. Gendry then moved his hand down to his hard length and wrapped his hand around his shaft. He stroked back and forth gently, while being sure to coat his cock in the lubricating oil, until he felt as if he was slick and slippery in his hand. He closed his eyes and let those thoughts he’d pushed down swim to the surface of his thoughts.

He pictured Arya kneeling down in front of him, wearing that black lace bralette and that thin lacy thong, with her hand wrapped around his cock. She was looking up at him with those grey eyes wide with lust, and her mouth was hovering over the tip of his cock. He could feel her warm breath against the sensitive tip of his length; Those shallow, excited breaths would feel like heaven. He imagined her stroking him a little faster, with her grip tightening, as she murmured all kinds of filth while staring up at him. Her eyes would never leave him, not even when she told him how much she wanted him to fuck her, how she wanted to feel him deep inside of her. How badly she needed him to fill her up. His cock twitched in response to her encouragements and her suggestions about where she wanted him to be, which fascinated Arya. She’d be changing the motion of her left hand, moving it so her thumb was passing over the tip of his cock, which made Gendry groan softly every time she did it. She didn’t relent, and as she stroked faster her suggestions grew bawdier. She would tell him how she wanted him to bend her over and fuck her from behind, or how badly she wanted to ride him and feel him thrusting up into her tight core. Gods, it was intoxicating. Arya stroked him faster and faster, as if she was impatient to see him cum. He wanted to, and he knew exactly where he wanted to cum. His hips bucked as his orgasm started to build up. There was an ache in his balls, that was pleading to be released. Arya was encouraging him, telling him she wanted him to cum wherever he wanted. So he did. He came all over her face and gasped when she shut her eyes and let the thick ropes of his load glaze her face like a doughnut being glazed with stripes of icing. She held him in her hand until he’d finished cumming, which is when she let him go, opened those gorgeous grey eyes and looked up at him.

_“You’re cleaning this up,”_ she whispered in his thoughts.

Gendry opened his eyes and realised that he’d just came over the floor of the bathroom. Shit. He had cum dripping from his right hand as well, adding to the mess on the floor. Gendry looked down at his pants and breathed a sigh of relief. At least nothing had gotten on those. He stepped out of his pants and underwear totally, then pulled the roll of toilet paper free from the holder. He pulled some free until he had a decent amount, then knelt down next to the mess he made on the floor and began to wipe it up. He wished he’d thought of finishing in something, instead of on the floor. He knew what he wanted to finish in; Arya’s mouth.

Gods, he shouldn’t think that. A wave of shame crashed through him and he let out a sigh. He knew he couldn’t think like that, and he certainly shouldn’t have jacked off pretending it was Arya in front of him doing it for him. She’d made it clear through her actions that she was not a relationship girl. He couldn’t entertain his fantasies that involved her, because it’d only make him push again and then that would blow up in his face. No. He had to be better than that. A lot better than that. He was fine hanging out with her, but he knew he couldn’t make any sort of suggestive comments to her until he was well and truly over her.

He finished cleaning the mess on the floor, then flushed the toilet paper down the loo. Gendry then wiped his cock clean of the lube as best he could, then stepped back into his underwear and his pants. He pulled them up one at a time and redressed himself, then tucked his shirt into his pants and walked up to the vanity. He turned the tap on and filled his hand with soap, and washed his hands thoroughly. Once he felt like he looked almost normal, Gendry sprayed some air freshener around to mask the scent of what he had done, then left the bathroom and headed back to his suite.

He crashed down in his chair and looked up at the clock. Five minutes. Fucking hell, where had the time gone? Gendry pressed the home button on his phone, and felt his heart sink. There was an unread message from Arya sitting there.

Arya  
  
Hey. Wanna go to Ikea tomorrow? I need furniture  
  
Sorry, can't do tomorrow

Gendry knew what would happen next. Arya would pester him until he caved and said yes. It’s what she used to do, and it’s what she had done recently when she asked him to come help her with her furniture. He just needed some space to figure out his head and strengthen his resolve. He couldn’t tell her that though. That conversation would go brilliantly.

_“Hey Arya, I need a few days to stop imagining you in lingerie after masturbating to the image of you jacking me off.”_

_“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”_

Yeah, no. He definitely couldn’t tell her why he needed a few days. He wondered how best to approach it, when he had an idea.

Arya  
  
Why can't you do tomorrow? It's Suunday. You're not doing anything  
  
I won’t be home, I’m going to see Edric and Mya for a family thing. Planning dad’s birthday  
  
You hate your dad though?  
  
I don’t hate him. Plus, it's his 50th. We should do something nice for it

He didn’t want to pull the family card, but he couldn’t think of anything else that was a viable excuse. But he knew it wouldn’t go down well with Arya.

Arya  
  
K

Yeah. He saw that coming. At least he’d have a few days where Arya didn’t talk to him. It was for his own benefit really. Gendry really wanted her friendship, but he also needed to get over this attraction to her. He’d never be able to act on it anyway. There was far too much bad history when things had gotten romantic between them, and besides, Arya was his best friend’s little sister. It was never going to happen, and that was just the reality that Gendry would have to accept. Maybe going out on a date with someone from Tinder while he was having a break from hanging out with Arya would help. Maybe that Jeyne girl, who was also from Winterfell.

Then again, Arya probably knew her, and would murder both her and Gendry if she found out that they had seen each other. Gendry sighed; There he went again, thinking about Arya. The next few days were going to be harder than he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Danielle for betaing!  
Thank you for the lovely comments and kudos and views <3
> 
> You know where my Tumblr is by now :p Also I'm curious; how do you think Arya would react if she found out Gendry jacked off thinking about her?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which Arya commits a crime and finds a stag in an unexpected place_

_Thud thud thud._

Arya paced up and down her living room, rubbing her hands together vigorously. It was midnight, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and Arya was freezing. Her heating hadn’t been hooked up yet, but that wasn’t the biggest problem. She paced back toward her bedroom and glowered at the mattress laying on the floor with only a wool fleece blanket covering it.

_“You won’t need a doona,”_ Sansa had said to her. _“Oldtown is warm. I barely ever sleep with mine.”_

Fuck you, Sansa, Arya thought miserably. Fuck you and your insane body heat.

Sansa also had the luxury of spooning Margaery every night. Meanwhile, Arya had no one. No one to cuddle up to, to bring her another blanket if she was cold, or to heat up a heat pack to put on her feet. She was alone. Not that she wanted anyone to do those things though, she was perfectly capable of living within her own means. But, she had to wonder; Would cuddling up to Gendry be as warm as she had imagined it about an hour ago?

“Snap out of it, idiot,” she growled to herself.

She and Gendry were friends. _Just_ friends. Just friends who ditched on their agreement to go furniture shopping after one of them had sent a stupid risky text. Arya cringed when she recalled that rush of blood to the head. She wished she could take back sending that provocative image. But there was a voice deeper in her head telling her to imagine what Gendry’s reaction would have been if she’d been wearing the set.

No. She wasn’t going to ruminate on that. That was an unhelpful line of thinking. Right now she needed to figure out how to get warm. She could just imagine Jon chastising her about feeling the cold since she was a Stark of Winterfell and lived in the cold most of her life. But this was different. She was prepared for the cold in Winterfell. Down here in Oldtown in the springtime she hadn’t expected such a cold night. If she had brought some of her warmer clothes down with her from Winterfell when she moved out a few years ago, it would have been fine. But the Oldtown climate had been unexpectedly hot throughout the year. The government denied it was climate change, just an unexpected phenomenon, but Arya knew that was a load of bullshit.

Her pacing was interrupted by a sharp pain through her right little toe. Arya let out a choked cry and keeled over in order to grab her foot. Of course, she stubbed her foot on the corner of a fucking wall. She sat down and rubbed her toe with her palm, in an attempt to try to disperse the pain even though she knew that didn’t do a thing. She pressed her forehead to her knee while she was sitting on the passageway floor and let out a heavy sigh. Why was she so fucking cold?

Arya scowled and pressed her hands into the cool floorboards. She knew she had to try to get to sleep, but she couldn’t sleep if she was cold. She’d learned this the hard way growing up in Winterfell. Arya drummed her fingers against the floorboards while thinking about how she was going to solve her problem. She turned her head and stared at the boxes, ruefully wishing she’d packed warmer clothes. Then an idea hit her. There was one person she knew who’d have warmer clothes; Gendry. But he wasn’t home. Arya frowned at her realisation; damn him for not being home. Then again, she’d broken into Jon’s place one time to steal some food when she was starving. There was nothing stopping her from breaking into Gendry’s. He wasn’t home, he’d never find out.

Arya hauled herself up to her feet and plodded to the kitchen bench. She swiped her keys off of the counter-top, then paused for a moment. There was a voice of morality in the back of her head telling her this was a very bad idea. Arya elected to ignore it. Where was the fun in life if you didn’t take a potentially stupid risk every now and again? Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?

—

Arya pulled up and killed the engine. She’d been listening to the Mission: Impossible theme all the way up to Gendry’s flat. She sat in her car and chewed her bottom lip out of nervous habit. That nagging voice telling her this was a bad idea was still there. She hadn’t been able to silence it yet. She undid her seatbelt and opened the driver’s door, then gently closed it. She put the keys up into the small alcove of the front right wheel, and then stood upright and faced Gendry’s flat Only then did she tie her hair back in a ponytail and creep across the front lawn toward Gendry’s flat. What was it Syrio used to say?

_Quick as a snake. Quiet as a shadow._

She crept up the concrete pavement that led to Gendry’s front door. She looked around to make sure no one was around and waited to make sure there wasn’t going to be a car pulling up unexpectedly. She held her breath for the moment she waited until she had convinced herself the coast was clear. Arya released the breath she held, then fished the card she’d brought with her out of the waistband of her underwear. She looked down at the library card from her uni days, then crouched down in front of Gendry’s front door.

She jammed the card into the gap between the door and the frame and wiggled it until it was firmly in there. She pushed it deeper until she felt something push back, and knew she was on the lock mechanism. Arya then pushed the card away from the doorknob bit by bit, praying that the latch would give. Every second was agonising, and she grew impatient and pushed the card a bit further. She was sure the latch was about to give, and so pushed back on the card a little harder.

_Crack._

The card snapped clean in half and Arya’s hand flew down and smacked into the concrete. She hissed and cursed under her breath, then looked at the half of her card wedged inside of Gendry’s door. Great. How the fuck was she meant to get that out? She stayed hunched over at Gendry’s door with her hand throbbing and the broken half of the card at her fingertips. Arya tipped her hand into the light and looked at her grazed knuckles. Blood was pooling to the surface of her skin in little dots. This was going to shit. Arya chewed on her bottom lip, then had another idea. Gendry’s flat was old, so she figured she could probably pry one of his windows open. Swift as a deer, she skirted around to the side of Gendry’s flat where his living room was. She dug her fingernails into the edge of one of his ornate windows and pulled back. The window felt like it was opening, then the part she was pulling on came away with a soft snap. Arya bit back a yelp as she felt the splinters of the wood sink into her skin and under her nails.

She flung her hands in the air and kicked her foot into the soft ground of his lawn. At this point, she was tempted to just kick a window in and be done with it, but she knew that was an awful idea. She also realised she’d be a lot warmer back in her apartment than out here in the cold night air in a black tank top and black leggings, but she’d committed to the cause now. Arya looked at the other windows of Gendry’s living room and noted that they all looked shut firmly like the one she’d just pulled on. So she’d have to try something else. Arya walked around to the blind side of Gendry’s flat, where his kitchen was. Luckily for him, it looked out over an old, gnarled oak tree with twisting branches snaking up through its canopy. Arya stalked past the kitchen window as the moon peeked over the top of the oak tree. She paused, then backed up.

“Fuck off,” she whispered.

Sure enough, Gendry’s kitchen window was cracked open. Arya hooked her left fingers, the ones without splinters, into the crack and pulled gently. The window swung open to her left without a hint of resistance. Of course, he’d left a window open. She let out a long sigh through her nose, then hauled herself up into the open window. The moonlight helped light her way through the pitch black of Gendry’s apartment, which was a good thing since his kitchen bench was covered in dirty dishes.

“Seriously Gendry?!” Arya said under her breath. “You’re disgusting.”

She carefully moved his dirty cereal bowl on top of a plate that had god knows what on it, and shifted his empty coffee mugs to the side, then hooked her leg over the window ledge onto the bench if the kitchen. She manoeuvred herself inside, being extra careful to not twist suddenly or move anywhere she couldn’t see, or she would probably have shattered every dish in Gendry’s kitchen. It felt like they were just a line of dominoes ready to be knocked down. She also held her breath while climbing into Gendry’s kitchen, since she didn’t want to breathe in the smell of his dishes and gag violently. It was only when she was inside his kitchen and closed his window that she remembered that he wasn’t bloody home. She’d been too caught up in executing the break-in that she’d bloody well forgotten. Arya rolled her eyes and shook her head; she could stop walking on eggshells at least, but she didn’t want to stomp around like a bull in a china shop. Gendry did have neighbours after all, and if they knew he wasn’t going to be home they’d more than likely call the cops if they heard anyone.

Now she was a bit more relaxed, Arya wandered quietly through Gendry’s pitch black apartment. As she moved deeper in, the moonlight stopped illuminating everything, so she paused and waited for her eyes to adjust. She ended up being able to make it to his bathroom. Arya nudged the door closed and turned on the light. She shielded her eyes after being temporarily blinded by the bedazzling light of the heat globes, then looked down at her hands. She’d done a real number on herself. Her right hand, the hand she had pushed the card with, had blood trickling down her fingers and her left had a few large splinters jammed near her fingernails. She turned on the tap in Gendry’s bathroom and ran her right hand under it. When the warm water hit her grazed knuckles, Arya let out a whimper but nothing more. She opened Gendry’s cupboard and rummaged through his stuff until she found some wound disinfectant. She put it up on the vanity and fumbled with the top of it until it spun free. Arya picked it up with her left hand and splashed the liquid over her grazed knuckles. The burn seared through her hand and though her eyes watered and every muscle in her body clenched, she didn’t make a sound. Arya waited for the throbbing to stop before she rummaged through the small drawer next to the cupboard in Gendry’s bathroom and found a pair of tweezers.

She held her breath, then pulled the first splinter out. It didn’t hurt as much as she expected, so she worked quickly to get rid of the other six until her hands were wood free. Arya washed her left hand under the water and splashed the disinfectant onto her fingertips and this time the smarting sting made her kick Gendry’s bathroom cabinet out of reflex, which definitely didn’t help with the pain. Arya shut the tap off and hung her head over the sink until the throbbing in her left hand and right foot had calmed down. She let out a shaky sigh, regained her composure and then dried her hands with Gendry’s one towel. She never understood how men functioned. Even though she wasn’t a princess like Sansa, she still understood the value of having multiple pillows and multiple towels. She shook her head at Gendry’s idiotic masculinity, then clicked the bathroom light off and swung the door back open. Again Arya waited for her eyes to adjust to the black of night before she wandered through Gendry’s apartment.

Her first stop was the laundry, looking for some freshly washed clothes. Of course, there was nothing there. She rolled her eyes and wandered back into his living room. From what she could see, there were shoes strewn all over the floor. This boy was frustratingly messy. She wandered into his kitchen and looked for what she wanted to find. When she found his dishwasher, Arya opened the door of it and tutted when she saw a load of presumably clean dishes inside.

_"Men"_, she thought with a shake of her head. She closed the dishwasher door, then straightened a pile of papers on the end of Gendry’s kitchen counter.

Gods be damned, what was she doing?! She wasn’t here to clean, she was here to take his hoodies and go be warm. She shook her head and made her way to Gendry’s bedroom. The door was pushed shut, so Arya pushed it open, still mulling over how Gendry could live in this organised chaos. Her eyes drifted to the bed, which of course wasn’t made, but when she saw what was in it she clamped her hands over her mouth and tried not to scream in pure fright.

It was Gendry. It was Gendry naked. It was Gendry naked within touching distance, snoring softly.

Fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fucking fuck. Arya’s mind was racing. The bloody moonlight was streaming in through Gendry’s open curtains, bathing him in a soft pale glow. Of course, he slept with his stupid curtains open. And of course, the light was showing off the fact his ass was bloody perfect. Arya was just praying that he didn’t roll…

As she thought it, Gendry rolled from his stomach onto his back and snorted in his sleep. Just great. Just bloody well great. Arya’s eyes were glued to his stomach because the gods were kind and had allowed a sheet to be draped over his hips. Until he moved again and kicked the sheet away, leaving him naked for all to see. Oh, and she saw alright. She could see how he was soft between his legs. Arya was transfixed, like a magpie staring at the shiniest gold ring in the world. She had seen a dick before. Multiple, in fact. But this… this was different. Arya’s eyes shifted from his dick to that stag tattoo that was inked proudly near to his crotch. Well, that explained the antlers at least. She had been mulling over what they could have been part of, but now she knew. Arya’s eyes then went to the floor and the canvas of clothing that was strewn near to Gendry’s bed. She rolled her eyes at how it stretched around to the other side of the bed, presumably.

She knelt down next to Gendry’s bed and shifted through his clothing, trying to find hoodies. She couldn’t help but glance upward though at him, fast asleep, and wondered if he would wake up if she were to reach out and put her hand on his well-defined abs. She then wondered if he would wake up if her hand went lower. Maybe he would, but he’d feign being asleep just to see what she would do. She chewed her bottom lip, then reached upward without thinking. Her left hand inched closer toward Gendry. She was a fingertip away from being about to touch him…

“Urgh,” Gendry groaned.

Arya froze. She snatched her hand back and watched him lift his hands up to his face, and then roll over away from her.

“Fucks sake,” he groaned. She watched in horror as he sat up and stretched. Oh, she was absolutely fucked now. Arya slowly backed up and stood up as she walked backward. She was grateful Gendry took the time to crack his neck, but when he stood up and she was still in his bedroom she realised she was absolutely fucked. Quiet as a shadow, Arya slunk out of his bedroom. Calm as still water, she told herself. If she panicked, she’d make a noise and that would definitely tip Gendry off. She skirted into his living room and took cover behind his couch, and then peeked over the edge of it. She waited, holding her breath. She saw Gendry wander out of his bedroom, and she prayed to God he didn’t come into the kitchen and turn the light on. Luckily for her, he wandered into the bathroom and pushed the door closed, before turning the light on. The light allowed her to get a view of Gendry’s butt, and his back muscles, and by the gods, she knew now he was in good shape. She sunk down behind the couch and put her head in her hands and let out a long, shaky breath.

Her hands were shaking with nerves. Arya pulled her face away and looked at her left hand. She couldn’t believe she had almost lost her composure to the point where she would have groped Gendry while he was asleep. She knew better than that, and she was sure she would have stopped herself at the last second. Which was coincidentally right when Gendry woke up. Her thoughts were interrupted by the flush of the toilet. Arya looked up in time to see the door swing open, and she ducked her head down, praying he hadn’t seen her. Arya huddled her knees up to her chest and watched Gendry’s shadow standing in the bathroom door, with his head tilted to the side. Why the fuck wasn’t he turning the light off.

“Must be seeing things,” she heard him mutter.

Arya closed her eyes and prayed he’d fuck off back to bed. But she didn’t get what she wanted. She heard the soft padding of feet getting closer, then the fridge door opened. Arya poked her head out from behind the couch and saw Gendry drinking orange juice straight from the bottle. Ugh. At least she wasn’t the only one, but still. When he put the bottle back in the fridge and made a half-assed effort to screw the top back on, Arya put her head back behind the sofa and prayed he’d go back to bed. Seconds felt like hours as she sat there, staring at her eyelids. Eventually, she heard the click of the fridge door and the sound of Gendry’s feet walking away from her.

“Hm, weird,” Gendry muttered. “Coulda swore I didn’t leave those there.”

Arya silently urged him to just deal with it in the morning. Thankfully, she heard him walking again, then heard the creak of the springs in his bed as he climbed back into it. She opened her eyes and stared up at his roof. Now what? She had to wait for him to fall asleep. She couldn’t exactly charge into his room, take his hoodies and run with him wide awake. Well, she could, but she knew that Jon would be there to take them back and give them a stern big brother talk.

No, she definitely couldn’t go in there while Gendry was awake. Gods, she’d go right back to staring at his crotch, and when he noticed he’d probably get hard. Oh no. Why did she have to think of Gendry naked and hard in front of her? Arya bit her lip in frustration and balled her hands into fists. She tried to divert her thoughts to something else, but naked Gendry kept popping up. Gods, she was picturing naked Gendry brushing Nymeria now, which was utterly ridiculous, but the sight of him was burned into her mind.

Shit. Arya looked down between her legs and scowled. She cursed her vagina and her brain. Now she was uncontrollably horny. Now, of all places, of all times. She looked back to the roof and tried to picture anything but naked Gendry, but her brain was determined to torment her. Arya slumped her shoulders in defeat. Why couldn’t she shake this? It wasn’t like she was hot for him or anything. Well, she guessed she was now. She remembered a couple of years ago how she had obsessed over him for a time, before…

No, she didn’t want to think about that. Instead, Arya looked down at her left hand, then up towards Gendry’s bedroom. She could feel her pulse thudding between her legs. She hated her body for betraying her like this. Here she was, sitting on Gendry’s living room floor, with him dozing off mere meters from her, and she was horny beyond belief. She looked around as if anyone was watching her, and grit her teeth. She could only think of one way to ease the throbbing between her legs. She knew this was a bad idea, but in the heat of the moment, she didn’t really care. She needed the relief more than anything. She reached down and slipped her fingers beneath the waistband of her leggings.

Wait, what was she doing? Arya pulled her hand back and frowned. Of course, the logical voice in her head decided to pipe up now. Could have spoken up a lot sooner, like when she was reaching for Gendry’s cock like a crackhead reaching for their pipe. Gods, she was losing it over a dick. A very nice looking dick, mind you, but it was still a bit of muscle and skin. She wondered what it would be like to have him in her hand, to feel him growing hard between her fingers. Arya let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes. She could practically feel it in her left hand; that soft skin, the muscles underneath hardening, the firmness of his length swelling in her hand, and his pulse thudding into the soft skin of her palm. She wanted to know what that felt like, and she wanted to know what Gendry’s reaction would be. She imagined those blue eyes closing and his chest heaving while she stroked him back and forth slowly, and then how he would let out a strangled cry when she took him into her mouth. Maybe he’d whisper her name when she put him to the back of her throat, but his voice would be hoarse and cracked since he’d barely be in control, desperate for more.

Arya opened her eyes as her breath hitched in her chest. Her hand was back beneath the waistband of her leggings, with her fingertips snaking beneath her underwear. Shit. She was barely in control. She had to get outta there now before she really lost it. She slowly stood up and inched toward Gendry’s room, but froze when she heard him snuffle and shift around in his bed. He wasn’t asleep yet, shit. She had to wait. She could only imagine his face if he caught her now. That cross frown, the pout of those lips…

Those lips that she desperately wanted to smash into her folds. She wanted to feel his mouth on her, his tongue roaming her wetness, swirling around her clit as he pressed his thick fingers inside of her and curled them upwards. Her body would coil, her toes would hook inward, and she could practically hear herself choke out Gendry’s name as the need to scream burned through her lungs. She couldn’t stay quiet during sex; the need to vocalise was always there, even when she was on her own.

Her muffled whimper snapped her back to reality. She became aware of the fact that she was hunched over, and could feel a thrumming between her legs. Her hands were shaking, and she was desperately needy to orgasm. She needed to get the fuck out of Gendry’s flat, before she tore her clothes off, woke him up and fucked him senseless. Arya crept onward toward Gendry’s bedroom and poked her head around the doorway. Gendry was on his back again, snoring softly and soundly. Arya’s eyes went to his crotch again. The moon was still bathing him in that soft pale light, but Gendry was not soft. He was hard, but he was asleep. Arya felt a shiver roll up her spine and her insides clench and squirm at what she was beholding.

She lost it this time. Her mind went to the thought of Gendry laying back, looking at her with those blue eyes. His pupils were dilated, and Arya wasn’t sure if it was before he loved her or he was just lusting for her. She’d grip his cock and rub herself up and down his length, and they’d shiver and groan in unison. When she pushed him inside of her, he’d groan first. Arya would just giggle in the delirium of how fucking good he felt. But when she fucked him her grunts and groans would rebound off of the walls. She was on her haunches, with her feet tucked into his hips. The slapping of skin on skin got louder as she sped up until she arched her back and screamed his name when his orgasm split her reality in half.

Arya wrenched open her eyes and shook her head. She wasn’t sure what noises she had made, but Gendry had rolled over onto his stomach, which meant she’d been lost in her head for longer than she’d thought. She needs to leave. Hell, she needed to leave ten fucking minutes ago. She went to her knees and flipped through Gendry’s clothing pile until she finally found a hoodie, and then another, and another. She gathered them up in her arms and got back to her feet and glided out of his room, but paused in the doorway. She turned back and looked at Gendry, bathed in the glow of the moon. Her heart ached, and she chewed her bottom lip furiously. She so desperately wanted to wake him up and curl up in those arms. The urge was greater than the ache between her legs. She went to take a step toward him but stopped herself. Gendry would not exactly be pleased to have her in his apartment uninvited at midnight. He’d probably get over it in a few days if he were to find her, but she knew he was a bit sensitive in the moment. She let out a long, slow breath through her nose, and counted to three in her head.

One. Two. Once she hit three, she’d turn around and leave. Arya paused and fought the urge to wake him once again.

Three.

Arya turned and crept into the darkness of Gendry’s living room. Quiet as a shadow. Arya walked past the neatly arranged shoes near his front door and put her hand on the doorknob when she was close enough. She looked back and wrestled with her heart and her head. She could make it up to Gendry. She could shush him and tell him she knew he was avoiding her, but she didn’t want to avoid him. She’d promise him it’d be okay while she took her top off and kiss those chapped lips while holding his face. It’d be okay. That’s what she’d whisper as she crawled between her legs and palmed his hard cock against his crotch…

No. She couldn’t. Not now. Arya unlocked the front door and gently pulled it open, praying it didn’t creak. It didn’t. She heard the clatter of plastic on concrete and noticed the half of her library card that had been jammed in the door was now free. Arya bent over, picked it up, then reached back and locked the door again. She stepped onto his porch and then gently pulled his front door closed until she heard the thud of the wood meeting the frame. Arya scurried back to her card and fished the keys out of the front right wheel alcove, which is where she had left them. She unlocked her car, pulled the door open and vaulted herself into the driver’s seat. She pulled her hair out of the tight ponytail she’d bound it in and then covered her face with her hands. What on earth had possessed her just then? Arya clawed her face with her nails, not hard enough to leave marks but hard enough to provide a stinging pain to make her focus on something else other than the throbbing wet mess that was her cunt. She needed to get home. She needed to get home right now.

—

Arya took the steps in her apartment building two at a time. She bounded to the stop and jammed her key into the door and turned it with a feverish need. Once she was inside, she tossed the keys on the kitchen bench and kicked her shoes off as she stormed into her room and threw Gendry’s hoodies onto her mattress. She pulled out the shoebox from under her bed and got her vibrator out. She tore her clothes off until she was standing naked, looking at the hoodies she’d stolen, feeling that throb between her legs become nigh unbearable. Arya got down on her mattress and rolled onto her back, then paused. She pulled one of his hoodies, a grey one with some logo she didn’t care about, over her head and wrestled her arms into the sleeves. She pulled the hood up over her head and then breathed in. She could smell Gendry’s musk mixed with his cologne, and that was her breaking point.

Arya snatched the magic wand vibrator up, turned it onto its lowest setting and pressed it between her legs. The vibrations tore a guttural moan from her chest and she turned the wand up higher and higher until her hips bucked and her toes curled. She thrashed around as she imagined Gendry’s cock pounding in and out of her, and she pushed her legs back to her head like she wanted Gendry to do. She whined as her insides tensed, and her body started to convulse and shudder.

“Fuck,” she groaned. “Oh fuck, oh _fuck_.”

She hiccuped and felt her hips buck as her eyes rolled back into her head a little. She screamed Gendry’s name as an orgasm tore through her core and the wand dropped from her hand as she rubbed her clit furiously, desperate to feel human contact and pretend it was Gendry. Her legs sprang outward as she came harder than she had in a long time, and her body convulsed while she moaned Gendry’s name over and over. Eventually her high finished and she lay there exhausted, with her inner thighs slick with her exertions of her orgasm. Arya reached down weakly and turned her vibrator off, then crawled beneath the doona and rolled onto her side. She was warm now, smothered by Gendry’s hoodie and the afterglow of her orgasm. Her eyes drooped sleepily and she curled her knees up to her stomach, and as she drifted off she realised something. The thought of Gendry fucking her had made her cum harder than she’d ever managed to cum before. What would it be like when he actually fucked her?

_If_ he actually fucked her. If. Arya repeated the word over and over in her head. If. If. If. Gods she wanted that if to be when. But Gendry was too nervous to do anything.

Arya slipped into the void of sleep but knew that if she wanted to make her fantasy a reality, she’d have to make the first move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Snapdragon76 for beta'ing and to TheReluctantBadger for being my photoshop hero
> 
> Sorry for the delay on this. Dumb meta drama and toxic, flakey people got in the way of being productive!
> 
> So, let me know what move you think Arya is going to make, if she's ballsy enough to make one.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which Arya and Gendry measure the dimensions of an IKEA bathoom_

The light of the early morning sun filtered through Gendry’s window. He raised his hand to his face and rolled over onto his left side, to face away from the brightness. He didn’t want to get up. He wanted to lay there some more and try to capture his dreams again. But he had to rise and shine; his dreams could wait. As he hauled himself out of bed, he felt his cock slap his thigh. Gendry had almost ignored the fact he’d woken up painfully hard, but now he was reminded of why. He had dreamed of Arya, with her nails sunk into his back, riding him like it was the last thing she would ever do. He swore at some point last night he had seen her standing in his living room, and when he had drifted off again all he could dream of was her, and how he wanted to put his mouth between her legs and make her toes curl with delight.

_“Snap out of it, you idiot,”_ Gendry growled in his head.

He stomped to the shower and pulled back the flimsy plastic curtains that were adorned with yellow rubber ducks. He turned the tap and waited for the water to heat. While he waited, he glanced down at his crotch and stared at the messy tangle of dark hair that had spread between his thighs. Arya’s comments about his beard floated back into his head; how either he had to have a full beard or be clean-shaven, nothing in between. He frowned at the state of his hair downstairs, then leaned over to the bathroom vanity and grabbed his electric razor. Gendry spun it around in his palm, and then pressed the power button.

—

Arya opened her eyes and arched her back in an attempt to stretch out the stiffness. She smiled and pulled the hood of Gendry’s hoodie down lower until it was over her eyes. She’d been awake for a while, replaying the events of last night over and over again in her head. She removed her hand from between her legs and gasped when she saw how slick her fingers were. She hadn’t cum as hard as she had last night, after her escapades, but she still felt like she was floating on a cloud. She slowly got up out of bed and plodded the short distance from her bedroom to her bathroom. She turned the lights on and set foot on the cool tiles. Reluctantly, she pulled Gendry’s hoodie over her head and laid it gently on her vanity. She slid into the shower and turned the water on, and cranked the heat up before she walked back to her vanity and opened her travel bag. She hadn’t had time to unpack everything yet, so all of her essentials were in her little travel bag, while the rest of her bathroom supplies were somewhere in the mess she had left in her living room. Once she had found her razor, she dug out the tiny canister of shaving cream from the bottom of that bag. She had kept it for travel emergencies, but this was a different kind of emergency. She popped the plastic top off and then marched determinedly toward the steaming spray of the shower.

—

The itch just kept returning, no matter how often Gendry scratched it. He sighed and rubbed his thumb into his temples. His phone was on his desk, unlocked, with his conversation with Arya staring up at him. He flexed the fingers on his right hand over and over as he wrestled with the urge to confess to Arya that she was driving him nuts, and he’d do anything to make up lying to her about being away last night because he needed to clear his head. Which had not worked. And now the itchiness of his shaved skin was distracting him just as much as her grey eyes looking at him with that lusty haze.

Fuck’s sake.

Gendry let out a long sigh through his nose, then picked up his phone.

Arya  
  
Hey. What are you up to?  


He waited, and it didn’t take long for his phone to buzz with a text.

Arya  
  
What is this, a booty call?  
  
I'm not calling you  
  
I can see that, stupid  
  
And not much. Putting my shit away. Slow work day?  
  
You could say that  


He grits his teeth and drummed his left fingers against the top of his desk.

Arya  
  
Want to go to ikea after work?  
  
And here I was thinking you'd ghosted me  
  
I wouldn't do that to you  
  
That's what they all say  
  
So is that a no?  
  
It's a yes. I need a fucking bed Gendry, I can't sleep on this mattress anymore  


Gendry snorted and shook his head. Arya’s choice of phrasing was questionable at the best of times, and he knew damn well she didn’t care how people interpreted her sentences.

Arya  
  
I'll pick you up when I'm done  
  
Oh, how sweet of you. Are you going to buy me dinner too?  
  
There's food at ikea, that'll do  
  
You sure know how to sweep a girl off her feet  
  
Yup, that's why I have a broom in my laundry  
  
You're a dork  


Gendry put his phone back down and swallowed the lump in his throat. Why did he have this ominous feeling that there was a subtext to those texts from Arya? He was sure she wasn’t acting any differently, but reading those texts in her voice he could almost hear the flirty innuendo seeping through her sentences. Or maybe he was just imagining things.

—

The concrete was warm on the back of Arya’s thighs. She was sitting on the stairs out the front of her apartment building, staring at her phone through her sunglasses. She picked at the frayed edged of her short denim shorts and tugged at the band of them to make sure they were still hoisted over her waist. Her head snapped up when she heard tires rolling on the road in front of her. Gendry had just pulled up in his black compact SUV. Arya wasn’t sure why it was compact; it looks fucking massive to her. She got to her feet and practically skipped to Gendry’s car, and pulled the passenger side door open.

“Took your time,” she snapped.

She hauled herself onto the seat and buckled her seatbelt up, then turned her head to look at him. Gendry was staring at her, mouth slightly agape, with his eyes wide behind his sunglasses.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothin’,” Gendry muttered. “Just haven’t seen the tat before.”

He pulled away from the sidewalk and chucked a U-Turn, then drove back up Old Oak Avenue and turned left.

“What do you think?” Arya asked.

“It’s big,” Gendry replied.

“Of course it’s big,” she snapped back. “It looks cooler if it’s big.”

“It looks really good,” he said. “It suits you.”

“Because I look really good too?” she asked teasingly.

“Ye…” Gendry caught himself just in time. “No, because of your family history.”

“My family history,” Arya repeated.

She arched an eyebrow at Gendry from behind her sunglasses, even though he couldn’t see it because he was looking at the road.

“What family history is that, exactly?”

“You know… Wolves being the symbol of your house, your ancestors used to talk to them…” Gendry said meekly

Arya giggled and shook her head slowly.

“Direwolves are our sigil, Gendry,” she corrected.

“What’s the difference?” he asked.

“Direwolves are fucking massive,” Arya stated.

“So are normal wolves!” Gendry retorted.

Arya shook her head and stared out the window at the buildings moving past her as they drove toward the warehousing district of Oldtown. The sky was pure blue, with not a cloud to be seen. It was just a perfect day.

“So what’s up with those antlers?” Arya asked after a quiet moment.

“Antlers?” Gendry asked.

“Yeah, antlers,” she repeated. “You know, the ones on your hip?”

“How did you…” he said.

“I’ve seen them,” she retorted back.

She almost said “Last night, when I broke into your apartment and saw you sleeping naked,” but she caught herself just in time.

“Oh, when I was moving your boxes?” Gendry asked.

His question shook Arya out of her recollection of last night.

“Yeah, when you put your hands all over my box,” she affirmed.

“Boxes. Plural,” Gendry pointed out.

He sounded so proud of himself for catching one of her mistakes.

“I mean, I didn’t see you doing _that_ much work,” Arya teased.

Gendry huffed and hooked a right into a roundabout.

“Says you,” he muttered.

“I heard that,” Arya spat.

They both chuckled then settled into a comfortable silence as Gendry approached a red light. The car didn’t jolt at all as he slowed to a stop, which was a far cry from Arya’s driving style.

“It’s a stag,” Gendry finally said.

“Wha’?” Arya asked. “Oh, the antlers. Why a stag?”

“Ancient house symbol thing,” he answered. “Not that I believe it or pay much mind to it.”

“You copying me, Baratheon?” she asked and nudged him with her elbow

“When did you get yours?” he asked.

“The one on my wrist? Three years ago. The big wolf? A few months,” she answered. “You?”

“A year,” Gendry muttered.

“So you did copy me!” Arya exclaimed.

Gendry grumbled as the light turned green and he took off with an unexpected lurch. Arya cackled and put her feet up on the dashboard.

“It’s so easy to get under your skin,” she gloated.

“I’m so glad I’m an object of your entertainment,” he spat back.

“It’s a sign of endearment,” she tossed back.

“Well thanks,” he said dryly.

Arya snickered and crossed one leg over the other.

“You’re welcome,” she chimed sweetly. “Aren’t you going to tell me to get my feet off the dash?”

“No point,” Gendry grunted. “You wouldn’t do it anyway.”

“You know me so well,” Arya said in agreement.

Gendry swung left and pulled into the underground carpark entrance which everyone who went to IKEA parked in. He turned his lights on as he drove around and managed to swing into a parking spot close to the lifts that lead up to the shops. He killed the engine and took his sunglasses off at the same time as Arya did.

“So what exactly do you need?” he asked.

“Bed frame, bookshelves, dressers, desk, rugs, cushions…” Arya rattled off.

Gendry turned his head to look at his boot space, then looked back at Arya.

“We might need a few trips…” he said despondently.

“What, never played Tetris?” Arya asked.

She flashed him a wolfish grin and undid her seatbelt. She threw open the passenger side door and hopped out onto the sealed surface of the carpark.

“Come on!” she cried.

Arya skipped off to the sliding doors that led to the escalators that ascended up to the IKEA. She heard the car door slam, and then a second door, as she realised she’d left the passenger door open. She lingered at the bottom of the escalator and waited for Gendry to catch up to her. This gave her a chance to admire the fact he was wearing skinny jeans and a tightly fitting white t-shirt, with a light blue button-up over the top with the sleeves rolled back past his elbows. As he approached, she stepped backward onto the escalator so that she had the high ground.

“Hah, you can’t defeat me!” Arya exclaimed.

“This isn’t Star Wars,” Gendry grumbled.

Arya snickered at how quickly he got her dorky reference.

“So, this stag of yours,” she said.

She waved her hand in the general direction of Gendry’s hip as she spoke.

“Is it to scale?”

“To scale of what?” Gendry asked.

Arya’s eyes drifted down from his to his hip. She tried not to stare at his crotch, but her eyes flickered away from where she knew the stag was inked on his body toward his core.

“You know stags are fucking huge, right?” Gendry asked.

“Since when were you a zoologist?” Arya snapped back.

She raised her eyes back to his and grinned at him. Gendry rolled his eyes in response and stepped up the escalator step so they were on the same level. Arya looked up at him and her breath hitched in her chest for some reason. He’d stood over her loads of times. But this was different. There was a spark between them; a palpable tension that she felt, and judging by the way Gendry jolted his head back, he felt it too. They stared at each other until Arya’s shoes hit the lip of the escalator and she stumbled sideways. She caught herself and straightened herself up, then turned back to see Gendry looking at her with an amused, lopsided smile.

“Don’t say a word,” Arya snapped.

“I wasn’t going to!” Gendry protested.

Arya narrowed her eyes at him.

“Yeah, sure,” she grumbled.

She turned on her heel and wandered toward the display hall area of IKEA.

“Hey,” Gendry called out.

Arya stopped and threw her head back and looked at him with an expectant stare.

“Don’t you have to go downstairs and pick everything out?” Gendry asked.

“How can I pick things out when I don’t know what I want?” Arya asked.

Gendry opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and dropped his eyes to the floor.

“Good point,” he conceded.

Arya twirled away, which made her white t-shirt billow out like a rippling cloud. They wandered along the display hall of IKEA together, not saying a word, apart from Gendry grunting whenever asked him if he liked a rug pattern or some adornment. She could feel his eyes burning into her and knew he was staring at the rip in her shorts which just happened to be where the soft curve of her butt was. She allowed herself a grin and made sure to bend over exaggeratedly to pick up a glass vase from a stool.

After what felt like hours of wandering, they came across a miniature bathroom in the middle of the display areas. Arya creased her forehead into a frown when she saw the sign saying “Fit everything you need into something smaller than a camper van.”

“You couldn’t fit a bathroom into a camper van,” she stated.

“The sign says you can,” Gendry said.

“And I suppose signs always tell the truth?” Arya asked.

“They’re meant to,” he said meekly.

“Stupid,” she muttered. “Go on, let’s see.”

She stepped inside the door into the narrow space of the bathroom. Sure enough, there was everything you needed in here; a shower, a vanity, a toilet, and even a dryer. Arya stood in the middle of the dimly lit room, then turned back to face Gendry.

“Well, the sign was right after all,” she conceded.

“See, I told you!” Gendry cheered.

Arya rolled her eyes at him and put her hands on her hips.

“There’s no way you could fit two people in here though,” she said.

“I reckon you could,” Gendry said.

“Does the sign say you can?” she asked.

“No, but two people need to use a bathroom at the same time sometimes,” he pointed out.

Arya tilted her head to the left and stared at him.

“So, you think two people can fit in here,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“No reason why they shouldn’t be able to,” Gendry said with a shrug.

Arya chewed on her bottom lip, then quelled her nerves and doubts and pushed the proverbial fuck it button.

“Dare you to find out,” she growled.

“Find out what?” Gendry asked, dumbfounded.

“What the fucking square root of pi is, stupid,” she said sarcastically.

“Well, if you…” he began to say.

Arya rolled her eyes. She stomped out of the bathroom, grabbed a fistful of his t-shirt and dragged him into the bathroom. Once he was inside, she kicked the door shut so they were standing together in the cramped, dimly lit space. They had room to move, but Gendry was so close to Arya that she could feel his heaving breaths rustling the stray hair that had swept across her face.

“You were right again,” Arya whispered.

“I told you so,” Gendry boasted.

“You said two people need to share a bathroom sometimes, right?” she asked. “What for?”

“Arya…” he began to say.

“What for, Gendry?” he pressed.

She let go of his shirt and traced her shaky fingers along his hip bone, where she knew the antlers of his stag tattoo protruded proudly. She guessed that something else of his was protruding proudly as well.

“Well if you share an apartment and you only have one bathroom, sometimes you might…” Gendry began to say.

“Might want to fuck each other in there?” Arya whispered.

Gendry jumped backward and thudded against the door of the bathroom.

“Arya, what?!” he exclaimed.

“What?” Arya asked. “People have sex in bathrooms all the time.”

“Yeah but… we can’t…” he began to say.

“Are you assuming I want to fuck you in this bathroom?” she asked.

“No…,” he said cautiously.

“Oh? That’s a shame,” she said. “Because that’s exactly what I was intending to do.”

“We… What?” he asked, dumbfounded.

Arya shushed him by getting up on her toes and crashed her lips into his. She attacked him ruthlessly and pinned her stomach against his hips so he couldn’t squirm away. Gendry was in shock at first, but then caved and kissed her back. She felt his tongue slide through her lips, and she groaned and opened her mouth for him. Arya was confident and slipped her own tongue between Gendry’s lips, but she didn’t expect him to waggle and thrash his tongue about like a fish out of water. Arya tolerated it for a moment, before she broke the kiss and got back down onto her feet.

“Wow, that was…” Gendry began to say breathlessly.

“We’ll work on your tongue kissing,” Arya interrupted.

Her chest was heaving and she could feel her pulse thrumming in her ears. She looked up at Gendry, who was looking down at her, his blue eyes soft with years of adoration.

“I can do other things with my tongue,” Gendry growled.

His words sent a shiver racing up Arya’s spine. She grinned and ran her fingers up his forearm slowly.

“Like tying cherry stems into knots?” she asked.

“Something like that,” Gendry murmured.

His hand came up to cup Arya’s cheek and he stroked his thumb along her cheekbone in a very tender, caring manner.

“Do me a favour?” he grumbled.

“What is it?” Arya asked.

“Shut up and kiss me again,” Gendry hissed.

“Pull me closer then,” she whispered back.

She let out a surprised gasp when Gendry’s hands clasped her face and pulled her upward toward his hips. Arya went with him and hooked her right arm around his neck as their lips crashed together again hard, hard enough that Arya thought she might bruise if they kept doing that. Her left hand trailed down from his shoulders, down the thin fabric of his t-shirt, across those abs that were so taut with tension. She brought her hand to rest on his waist, opposite to the stag and ran her index finger across the cool metallic surface of the button of his jeans.

“_Arya_,” Gendry croaked out between kisses.

He gasped for air and put his hand on top of hers. Arya shivered at the contact; she loved how he said her name like that, and his hands were burning hot.

“ ‘Sup?” Arya asked.

“Are you okay with…” he paused and gulped. “With this?”

“Would I be doing it if I wasn’t?” she asked.

She softened her expression and pulled her head back a little from Gendry and blinked slowly at him.

“Are you okay with this?” she asked.

“Yes, gods yes,” Gendry blurted out. “Okay doesn’t summarise what I am.”

Arya rolled her eyes at him, then popped the button of his skinny jeans open.

“Is that a dagger in your pants or are you just happy to see me?” she asked.

Before Gendry could answer she pressed her palm into his crotch and pushed against Gendry’s hard length through the fabric of his jeans and his underwear. He wasn’t hung like a horse, but he was more than a handful. Arya was secretly hoping that he wasn’t monstrously sized; there was this misinformation that every man had a monster cock between his legs. Arya had watched her fair share of porn to surmise the fact that while big dicks looked impressive, being impaled on one wouldn’t be the most comfortable experience. She didn’t really want her insides rearranged every time she fucked her boyfriend.

_Boyfriend._ That was something Arya hadn’t considered before, and she quickly pushed that thought out of her head. No, she didn’t want a boyfriend. She just wanted to get Gendry naked and feel him between her legs and hear him whisper her name tenderly as he plowed into her. No, that wasn’t what a boyfriend did. Boyfriends bought her flowers and gave her sweet kisses while feeding her lies about how she’s the only girl they’re interested in. Boyfriends were Elmer Frey; a cunt whose nose she’d broken when he found out he’d had his hands down another girl’s pants.

No, she didn’t want Gendry to be a boyfriend. She wanted him to be just Gendry.

“If I say it’s a dagger, promise not to rip it off and stab me with it?” Gendry joked.

His humour brought Arya back into the moment, and she realised her hand was still on the outside of Gendry’s jeans. She lowered her eyes to Gendry’s waist, then tucked her index and middle finger behind the zipper of his jeans. She lifted her eyes back to meet Gendry’s and smirked at him.

“It might not be big enough to do any major internal organ damage,” she teased.

“I was more worried about it not being sharp enough,” Gendry returned.

“I’ll whittle it to a fine tip,” Arya retorted.

She looked down at the ground and found a small wooden box placed against the wall of the bathroom. She dragged it closer to her with her left foot and placed it at Gendry’s feet, then stepped up onto it to eliminate some of the height difference between them. Gendry was grinning at her when they came eye to eye, and she chewed her bottom lip and locked her gaze with his.

“Wow the weather’s really nice up here,” she muttered with a giggle.

“Never heard that one before,” Gendry drawled sarcastically.

Arya rolled her eyes and hooked her fingers behind Gendry’s zipper. She pulled down on the zipper and tugged his jeans down to his knees, which was difficult with one hand. Gendry’s fingers lingered on the black choker she had on her neck, then he pulled her closer by the chin and kissed her again. Arya’s hand splayed over Gendry’s crotch, and she palmed his hard length firmer when Gendry touched the swell of her breasts, which were held up by a push-up wired bra. Arya whimpered as Gendry’s hand dropped lower, and lower, and lower…

She heard the pop of the buttons as he undid her shorts, and felt his hands peel the denim apart and gently tug them down to her knees as well. She pressed him harder against the door and opened her legs a little wider as his fingers pressed into her soaked folds through the fabric of her dark blue cotton underwear. She hadn’t put lingerie on, and she was silently cursing her choice. But Gendry wasn’t exactly looking at her; their eyes were closed as their kisses became heated and needy. Gendry worked Arya with his fingers, pressing down on her core until his fingers found her clit through the cotton of her underwear. When he pressed on her sensitive nub, it felt like electricity raced through her veins, and she moaned loudly into Gendry’s mouth.

“People can hear us,” Gendry hissed.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Arya growled against his lips. “Let them hear.”

Gendry chuckled and bit her bottom lip as he caught her mouth in another kiss. Arya growled primally at the sharp spike of pain that radiated through her mouth, and she retaliated by gripping Gendry’s length harder and doing her best to stroke him. It was hard through underwear, and she contemplated ripping his silken boxers down, but this was enough. Arya basically mounted Gendry’s hand when he cupped her crotch with his hand and rubbed her with the heel of his palm. It felt like heaven, and she rolled her hips back and forth, rutting desperately against his hand. He knew what he was doing, and it was magical. The thrill of being in public, coupled with the fact that she was finally hooking up with Gendry, made her insides squirm and coil. She was…

No, she couldn’t be close to orgasm. But her toes were curling in her shoes, and she was moaning against Gendry’s mouth more and more. Gendry did his best to muffle her moans with his kisses, but she couldn’t be silenced. It was then that Arya realised that she was going to have her first orgasm with Gendry in an IKEA display bathroom. When he moved his other hand to her chin, Arya pushed down on Gendry’s hand between her legs with her own hand and scrambled back off the box.

“What?” Gendry asked.

“I heard someone asking for security,” Arya lied.

Her chest was heaving and she could feel her cheeks burning bright red as she buttoned up her shorts.

“We gotta go.”

“But we haven’t bought your stuff yet,” Gendry protested.

He pulled his jeans back up and smoothed his shirt out before he gasped while staring at Arya.

“Arya…” he whimpered.

Arya turned and looked in the mirror. There were bright red teeth marks on her bottom lip, accompanied by a bruise that was slowly spreading. Arya turned her head back to Gendry and grinned wolfishly at him.

“You ass,” she hissed.

“I am so sorry,” Gendry said, his voice trembling.

“No you’re not, dick,” she teased. “C’mon, we gotta go.”

She pulled the door to the bathroom open when Gendry stepped back and pulled him by the hand out into the hallway of the IKEA. It was then that she noticed two older women staring at her venomously, judging her by her rugged look and probably by the bruises on her lips. She grinned at them with a sickeningly sweet smile and then tugged Gendry to the right.

“That was a close one,” Arya whispered with a giggle.

“Yeah, let’s not do that again,” Gendry grumbled.

His words tripped something in her brain. The logical voice in her head told her he just meant in a public place, but the illogical part of her thought all he wanted from her was a quick fuck, to claim her as a trophy to brag about. _I fucked the wild little Stark._ Arya glanced up at Gendry, who was looking at a coffee table and saying something, but his words were drowned out by a screaming voice telling her how stupid she was to get with him. Last time they’d acted on their lust, it had ended horribly. And even though Arya told herself she wished she could go back and undo what she said and did, there was a part of her telling her it was the safer choice. That she wasn’t anywhere near good enough for Gendry. Those psychological scars cut deep; the sense that she wasn’t beautiful enough, wasn’t smart enough, wasn’t someone that people wanted to spend time with. She was a loner, and even though she could make friends with people easily people still walked out on her. She had been abandoned, she had been ghosted by people who told her that they were close friends; friends who said they were one of the few people she could open up to. She’d been betrayed one too many times to believe anyone ever again, and she knew life would just be easier if she didn’t get attached.

But she was attached. She was attached to Gendry. And she had no idea what to do about the bull-headed idiot who was holding up two potted plants in front of her, presumably asking which one she liked better. Arya faked a smile and shrugged, so Gendry held onto them both. But behind the smile she was staring at herself in a mirror, telling herself she didn’t deserve him, that he was only going to hurt her and leave her. And in the end, she’d be alone again. And sometimes it was just easier to be alone than try to connect with people again. That way, no one would ever leave. No one would ever abandon her.

She’d never get hurt again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Snapdragon76 for being my beta once again
> 
> Whew things heated up a bit there hey. Thank you for all the likes, comments, bookmarks, subscriptions, etc etc. It means the world to me. I have a couple of other fics in planning stages for other ships (Looking at you, Supercorp and Sansaery), but I'll find time to make sure I get this done.
> 
> Hopefully there's no issues with people being toxic anymore, that was a thing. Nothing is going to derail me again though :D


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which Arya and Gendry make a plan that has zero chance of backfiring_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prat is basically a word for "you're a dick"

“You don’t need instructions, Arya. How hard can putting a table together be?” Arya wondered aloud. “Fuck you, Jon. Fuck you and your innate ability to put things together.”

She threw the Allen key down on the floor, and then instantly regretted her decision. She needed that. Arya flung herself downward and snatched the L-shaped key off of the floor and then turned it around in her fingers, before slipping it into her pocket. Why did she have to listen to Jon’s goading on the phone and tear the instruction pamphlet up into confetti? At least she had mostly gotten it right, apart from this one metal support that for the life of her she couldn’t figure out where it was meant to go. Arya shrugged; maybe it wasn’t important. She flipped the table upright and then pressed down on it with her left hand. The table held for a moment, then one of the legs slipped out from underneath her and fell to the floor with a clunk, as the table lurched over and thudded down next to her foot.

“Fuck you Sweden,” she growled.

She picked the table up and stuck the fallen leg back where it should be when she was interrupted by her intercom ringing. The first few bars of [“Never Gunna Give You Up”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) echoed through the walls of her apartment, and Arya had never been so glad that she’d figured out how to add her own midi files to an intercom. She skipped over to the intercom panel to see who was there and frowned when she saw Gendry standing there with pizza and a bunch of flowers. Great. She pressed the answer button and then cleared her throat.

“What’s the topping on the pizza?” she asked.

“Hi to you too,” Gendry said. “Chicken and bacon with barbecue sauce.”

Shit. Her favourite. Arya grits her teeth and drummed her fingers against her thighs.

“And the flowers?” she asked.

“A mix of wildflowers,” Gendry responded. “They’re fake, see?”

He bit into one of the snapdragon bunches to prove his point.

“That way you can put them wherever you like.”

“After disinfecting them,” Arya grumbled.

She pressed the unlock button on the intercom, which undid the locking mechanism on the front door of their complex.

“Come up. I’ll open the door for you.”

Arya hung up the intercom and snatched her keys off of the kitchen bench. She plodded to the front door and turned her key in the lock and swung the door open, then leaned against the door-frame and waited for Gendry to ascend the stairs. Once his face crested the stairs, he beamed at her and took the steps two at a time until he was standing in front of her.

“Real flowers make for a better apology,” Arya grumbled.

She snatched them from his hand and made her way back inside. Gendry followed after her she assumed since she heard the click of the door and the sound of him kicking his shoes off.

“I’m not apologising,” he muttered.

“Then what are you doing here?” Arya asked.

She turned around and raised an eyebrow at Gendry.

“Jon texted me and said you’d decided to put everything together without instructions,” Gendry said. “I wanted to witness it for myself.

“I am so glad I’m an object of your amusement,” Arya snapped.

“That’s not…” Gendry began to say.

He paused and let out a long sigh, and then looked Arya in the eyes.

“I’m sorry for yesterday,” he finally said. “I should have stopped you before things got…”

“No, you shouldn’t have worn skinny jeans and paraded around so much that I could see your cock out of the corner of my eye,” Arya grumbled.

“Are you saying I dressed provocatively on purpose?” he asked, bewildered.

“Yes. And I’m so glad you think I’m genuinely mad at you,” Arya said with a giggle. “You’re so gullible.”

“I… What?”

“Did you seriously think I was pissed?”

She wandered over to one of the boxes in her living room where she had put things that she didn’t think she’d need in and pulled out a black vase Sansa had given her. She undid the wrapping on the flowers and shoved them into the vase, then turned her head back to Gendry.

“Because I’m not. I meant what I said; I didn’t want my first time cumming with you to be in a fucking IKEA bathroom. Gods above.”

Gendry stared at her, clearly not quite believing what he was hearing.

“So, you don’t hate me?” he asked.

Arya cracked a smile at him and then sat down on the arm of the chair in her living room.

“Not yet,” she said cheerily. “Though if you’re going to keep bringing me pizza can I keep making you think I hate you?”

Gendry snorted and tossed the pizza onto the coffee table Arya had been constructing. Arya watched in slow motion as the unsecured leg of the table gave out again and her pizza toppled to the floor. She hurled herself forward and stuck her foot out and managed to catch the box with her foot and knocked it onto the floor lid side up so that her pizza wouldn’t cascade over the grey rug she had on the floor.

“Jon was right,” Gendry said with a chuckle. “It really is a disaster in here.”

He knelt down next to the coffee table and flipped it upside down.

“Where’s the Allen key?” he asked.

Arya dug the key out of her pocket and tossed it over at Gendry. Gendry caught it out of the air, and then picked up the missing metal support off of the floor. He began to unscrew things and pull bits of the table apart right in front of Arya. Arya picked up the pizza box, dumped it on her lap and pulled out a slice, then ate it absentmindedly while she watched Gendry work. She admired how quickly he was able to fix her mistakes, but when he flipped the table back upright and patted it, she frowned and tilted her head to the side.

“Want to do the rest?” she asked.

“Are you paying me?” Gendry asked with a smile.

“I’ll pay you five bucks per thing,” Arya said.

Gendry narrowed his eyes at her and raised his hands cautiously.

“Last time you said you’d give me bucks, you tried to pick me up and throw me off like a rampaging bull,” he pointed out.

“That’s what a buck is,” Arya said with a shrug.

“No. A buck is a dollar,” he grumbled.

“If you look it up in the dictionary…”

“Oh not this _again_,” Gendry interrupted. “You can’t defer to the dictionary to win every single argument you have. Especially when you once said to be dictionaries are for nerds.”

Arya huffed and bit into her pizza.

“Shut up,” she grumbled.

Gendry smirked and looked at the boxes that were scattered across Arya’s floor.

“There’s a lot of boxes in here again,” he observed. “Are you sure you want me to touch them all?”

“I’d rather you touch them here than touch them in IKEA,” Arya shot back.

“Funny,” Gendry drawled.

He pulled another flat-pack box close to him and opened the lid, then fished out the plastic bag that all the assorted parts needed in it.

“Hey, this one has screws in it,” he noted.

“Is that your way of trying to ease me into bad furniture jokes?” Arya asked.

“Not at all,” Gendry said defensively.

“Hey, screw you man,” she teased.

Gendry rolled his eyes and groaned loudly.

“What have I started…”

“Your own personal hell, probably,” Arya said with a shrug.

“So…” Gendry said quietly. “You’re okay with what we did in IKEA?”

Arya chewed her bottom lip and stared at him. He was kneeling down, with the veins of his forearms popping out. She told herself it’d be so easy to lure him closer, slip her shorts off and let him have his way with her. But that voice held her back, told her it’d never work.

“I mean, isn’t that what normal people do?” she asked, not realising how dumb that sounded.

“Normal people don’t hook up in an Ikea bathroom Arya,” Gendry replied.

“If anyone here isn’t normal…” she began to say.

“I’m trying to be serious here,” he interrupted. “Can you hold off your smartass comment for ten seconds?”

Arya pouted and folded her arms over her chest.

“I’ll be counting,” she grumbled.

“Listen, there’s obviously still something between us,” Gendry said.

“There i-”

Gendry held up his finger, and Arya snapped her mouth shut. Fuck him and his dreamy blue eyes that were distracting her from being angry at his assumptions.

“And I think it’s best for both of us if we… work it out somehow,” Gendry proposed. “Maybe we talk it out, let it dissipate.”

“If there’s something between us we should be friends with benefits and fuck it out so it goes away,” Arya said without thinking.

As soon as she realised what she had said, she cringed internally. She was a bloody idiot.

“I…” Gendry croaked out.

“But not fuck it out as in we actually fuck,” she jumped in. “We just need to… Relieve our frustrations and eventually whatever you’re imagining between us will go away and we can move on. Plus it’s not like we could ever work together.”

Yeah…” Gendry said wistfully. “You’re my best friend’s little sister. It’d never work. Plus you’re a pain in my ass.”

“And you’re a stupid, bull-headed prat,” Arya spat back.

_But you’re my stupid bull-headed prat_, Arya thought with a tinge of regret. This was for the best though; there was too much of a complicated history between her and Gendry. It was for the best that they just sorted out their attractions and then both moved on with their lives.

“So, how do we… do this,” Gendry said.

“We make a list of rules,” Arya stated.

“What is it with you and lists?”

“C’mon, I only make good lists.”

“They’re always so long though,” he moaned.

“You haven’t seen my “to-kill” list then, have you?” she said with a wink.

“You have one of those?”

“You’ll have to wait and see...”

She put the pizza box down on her chair and hopped onto her feet and plodded into the kitchen. There was a writing pad and a pen left on the kitchen bench. She picked them up and walked back into the living room, and realized Gendry was staring at her with a funny look on his face.

“What?” Arya asked.

“Nothing,” Gendry muttered.

Arya frowned at him and rolled her eyes dramatically.

“Whatever, loser,” she grumbled.

She resumed her perch back on the arm of the chair and scribbled down a title onto the writing pad.

“Okay, rule one… No overnight stays,” Arya stated.

“Fine by me, I have work in the mornings,” Gendry agreed.

“Also, since I can’t exactly say you’re my cousin if people drop around, you’re here to help me change my light globes,” she said.

“You call them globes?”

“Yeah?” What do you call them?”

“Light bulbs.”

“Well it’s what written down, so too fucking bad,” Arya grumbled. “Oh, another one. Kiss my cunt, not my mouth.”

“Sometimes I wonder what the difference is…” Gendry muttered.

“You know that joke doesn’t work, dickhead,” she teased.

“I have one,” he said.

“Shoot...”

“We never make plans,” Gendry said. “It’s all spontaneous.”

“I like the way you think,” Arya agreed.

She wrote it down, then added two more to the list.

“I added no pillow talk, and you arrive alone and leave alone,” she said.

“What about no romantic words?” Gendry asked. “I know you hate that.”

“Ugh, yes, if you ever say you want to make love to me I will projectile vomit all over you,” she said.

“What if that’s my kink?”

Arya stopped writing and lifted her eyes to stare flatly at Gendry.

“Then we’re going to have a fucking great time, aren’t we?” she joked darkly.

“I should have seen that one coming, shouldn’t I?” Gendry said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, never try to beat my sense of dark humour buddy,” Arya teased. “Oh, I know.”

She added two more rules to the page and then tapped the end of the pen on the paper.

“And now the golden rule. No cuddling. Never ever,” she said firmly.

She winced at the memory of what cuddling had caused between them last time. She didn’t want to relive that, so it was better that the only touching that Gendry did was to put his hands in places where she’d want to scream, not cry. Arya turned the pad around, tore the piece of paper off, and then passed it over to Gendry.

“What do you think?” she asked.

She watched Gendry lower his eyes to the paper and scan the words she had written there.

“I think you have awful handwriting,” Gendry joked. "I could chisel these into a rock like commandments and they'd be more legible than this."

“Fuck off,” Arya shot back. “What do you think about the rules, stupid?”

“I think if you’re happy with them, I’m happy with them.”

“Good,” Arya said with a nod. “I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. That’s the point of the deal.”

She fidgeted with the hem of her t-shirt and then looked up at Gendry again.

“So. Shake on it?”

She extended her hand out toward Gendry. He reached up and gripped her hand firmly, and smiled up at her.

“Deal’s a deal,” he said warmly.

—

Arya climbed into bed and sank into her new mattress on top of her new bed-frame. She snuggled the sheets around her tighter and then let out the sigh she had been holding in for the last few hours while she and Gendry built furniture and made countless screwing jokes. Her pulse was thudding between her legs still. Getting off under the shower had provided some temporary relief, even if she had to bite down on the facewasher as she pretended her hands were Gendry’s. Arya balled her hands into the fabric of the sheets and gripped until she felt her hands trembling with exertion, and then she let go. She felt like she was making a terrible mistake by being friends with benefits with Gendry. She knew for a fact her feelings wouldn’t dissipate with countless orgasms at his hands. In fact, they’d probably only get worse. But it was the only solution she could think of, apart from cutting him off again. She knew what that had done to him last time, and she couldn’t put him through that again. Plus, Gendry knew where the boundaries were this time. He wouldn’t overstep them again. That’s what the rules were for, to ensure that neither of them would make a mistake like the last time they had gotten close.

Except there was a nagging thought in the back of Arya’s mind. Rules were made to be broken.

_So were hearts, Arya thought miserably_. _Hearts were made to be broken too. And mine is made of glass._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my birthday today so yeeeey happy 25th birthday to me
> 
> Thank you to Danielle for beta'ing as always.  
And thank you to all of you for your lovely stuff you leave here every update. Can't believe we're over 5k views, and there's STILL no fucking. Maybe that will change soon. Maybe it won't. Feel free to take a guess who breaks what commandment first by the way >:)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _In which Arya is a big softie_

Brightly coloured birds hopped around on the railing of Arya’s balcony, pecking at the seed she’d left in a dish for them. She sat on the floor watching them, with a pencil in her left hand and blank paper splayed out in front of her. She’d never been much of an artist, but occasionally she felt like sketching things; places, people, things she’d seen in the world. The bright plumage of the birds made her think of Gendry. It was surprisingly easy for him to slip into her thoughts these days; then again, he had lost his job a few days ago and naturally, Arya was worried for him. She’d brought him pizza and sat in silence the day after he’d told her. He had barely said anything and ate very little, but he thanked her for the gesture. She knew he needed space, but she also wanted to try to do something nice for him. She glanced over to her phone, which was laying on top of an envelope on her coffee table.

_ Surely he’ll be awake now. It’s bloody midday_, Arya thought.

She leaned over, so she tumbled onto her knees and reached out for her phone. It would have been easier for her to just get off her ass and move, but that wasn’t her way. Once her phone was in her hand, Arya pushed off of the floor and resumed her previous sitting pose, before she unlocked it and went to Gendry’s contact details and called him. She put her phone on speaker, then sat and watched the lorikeets jump around, chirping and fluffing their chests out. The blend of colours in their feathers was captivating, and Arya could sit and watch them for ho-

“What?” Gendry said in a husky, grumpy voice.

Arya blinked and shook her head. She’d gotten so absorbed into the birds she’d forgotten she was on the phone. It’s not like the birds served any relevance to her life currently. They were just pretty to look at.

“Good morning to you too,” she said, chipper as ever.

“It’s afternoon,” Gendry grumbled.

“I know, I just wasn’t sure how long you’d been awake for,” Arya said.

“Long enough,” Gendry grunted. “Why’d you call?”

“If you’re done being a grumpy cunt, I’ll explain,” Arya snapped.

Silence. She heard Gendry sniff and mutter something she couldn’t quite figure out.

“Sorry,” he said after a long pause. “What’s up?”

“I know that losing your job sucks but I have something to cheer you up. So put a smile on that dial and stop being a grumpy-guts,” Arya exclaimed.

“You’re such a pain in the ass,” Gendry sighed. “So what’s this something you’ve gotten?”

“Well, I figured you needed something to lift your spirits,” Arya began.

A loud sigh from Gendry cut her off, and she glared down at her phone, even though she knew Gendry couldn’t see her face.

“Okay, I know you’re not in a great place, but if you keep being a dick I’m just going to hang up and give your something to someone else,” she grumbled. “I’m trying here. Least you can do is try as well.”

“As long as your something isn’t like the gift you got Jon to cheer him up after that sideswipe…” Gendry grumbled.

“No, Gendry, I didn’t pay Satin to give you a lap dance,” Arya clarified. “Though he would have done it for free…”

“And it better not be what you got Sansa to make her forget that time she…”

“Okay we don’t talk about that, I’m still scarred mentally from the aftermath,” Arya interrupted. “No. It’s… Well, it’s a re-gift.”

“A re-gift,” Gendry repeated.

“Yeah. And no it’s not frilly underwear,” Arya clarified.

“I didn’t even know you owned that stuff,” Gendry said.

“Fuck off, you saw it with your own eyes,” Arya grumbled. “No, it’s something Margaery gave me.”

“And that’s meant to make me worry less…?” Gendry asked.

Arya snorted a laugh and smiled. Gendry wasn’t wrong; any gift involving Margaery should make anyone worried because it was most likely going to involve sex or alcohol. Or both. She could still remember the look on Jon’s face when Ygritte had gotten a chastity cage for Kris Kringle at their yearly sibling Christmas gathering. Sansa had been horrified, and Arya had laughed so hard she had thrown her head backward into the coffee table and split the skin open. Margaery had never admitted that she was Ygritte’s gifter to anyone but Arya.

“It’s not one of those gifts, I promise,” Arya said. “I wouldn’t give you a buttplug with a pink jewelled heart at the base as a cheer me up present. Unless that’s your thing…”

“It’s not, and I never want to see that,” Gendry clarified.

“It’s a gift certificate for a massage parlour,” Arya continued. “I figured… Well, I thought because you’re probably really stressed out, you could get better use out of it than I can.”

“It’s not a rub and tug place, is it?” Gendry asked.

“Yes, Gendry, Margaery would absolutely buy me a massage just so I could get a handjob,” Arya drawled. “Of course, it’s not.”

“And you thought I’d appreciate it?” Gendry asked.

“Listen, if you’re going to be an ass about it, I’m just going to use it myself,” Arya snapped. “Honestly, I try to do something nice and yo-”

“I love it,” Gendry said, interrupting her.

“Just keep b- What?” Arya said.

“I said I love it. It’s really thoughtful of you,” Gendry said.”

“Oh, um… yeah, I can be nice sometimes y’know?” Arya bumbled, totally knocked off guard by Gendry’s reaction.

“No, seriously, thank you,” Gendry said. “I’m used to just doing everything myself. No one usually looks out for me.”

“No, no, it’s nothing,” Arya said. “Feel free to drop around and grab it.”

“What? Now?” Gendry asked.

“Um…” Arya looked around her apartment. She was sitting down in a black tank top with no pants on.

_Well, it could be worse_, she thought. _It could be like that time Sansa…_

“Yeah, sure, now,” she said.

“I’ll be over in a minute then,” Gendry said, and then hung up the phone.

Arya sat there with a stupid grin on her face. She had this strange feeling in her stomach. It felt like… satisfaction. But she rationalised it by telling herself she was just helping a friend out. That’s all. Nothing could go wrong by gifting him a massage certificate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while, but we back with a revamped plan!
> 
> Happy New Year everyone, let's hope 2020 brings one completed fic lololol


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there are no rules

Everything was going wrong. Very wrong. Arya spun the steering wheel of her car sharply and turned down the side street, then hooked a left and pulled into the massage parlour’s gravel car park. She pulled in next to Gendry’s car, and contemplated parking so close to him that he couldn’t open his door, but she decided against it. Maybe another day. She unbuckled her seatbelt and swung the door open, then marched up the wooden steps and through the front door of the massage parlour. She was greeted by the sight of Gendry standing meekly to the side of the counter, and a gorgeous dark-skinned woman standing over the front desk, with her arms crossed over her chest and her gaze firmly locked onto Arya.

“Is this her?” she asked, in a smooth but stern voice.

“Yes, this is Arya,” Gendry said. “She’ll be able to tell you…”

“That I gave him the certificate for his own use?” Arya asked. “Yeah, I did.”

“You cannot,” the woman behind the counter said. “You have to tell us first.”

“Oh, I’m sorry… I didn’t catch your name?” Arya asked.

“Chataya,” the woman said.

“Chataya,” Arya repeated. “Well, I was given the certificate as a gift by a friend of mine. I thought that Gendry would be able to redeem it though. He just lost his job, and I thought he could use a relaxing massage.”

Chataya smiled at Arya’s gesture, but her arms remained crossed over her chest.

“So, you two are together?” Chataya asked.

Arya glanced at Gendry, then looked back to Chataya and shrugged casually.

“I mean, yeah?” she said.

“This is a massage for two,” Chataya said.

“Two uses, right?” Arya asked.

“No. Two people,” Chataya confirmed.

“Oh,” Arya exclaimed.

“If you two are together, you can claim this certificate,” Chataya said.

“I don’t…” Arya began to say.

“Alayaya!” Chataya yelled out.

A woman poked her head out from behind the curtain. Arya could have sworn it was a younger version of Chataya she was looking at, but she was pretty sure the incense she could smell wasn’t a hallucinogenic. She blinked and clung onto the hem of her shirt.

“Is the couples room free?” Chataya asked.

“Yes, there’s no booking in there all day,” Alayaya responded.

“We’re not…” Gendry tried to say.

“These two have a special treatment certificate,” Chataya said. “Please, have the girls set the room.”

“Of course mother,” Alayaya said.

Arya swore she saw the hint of a smirk, but it was gone before she could decipher its meaning.

“Please, follow me,” Alayaya said, snapping Arya back to reality.

The curtain was held open for her and Gendry. Gendry looked at the curtain, then to Arya, then back to the curtain. He stepped through into the black beyond. Arya let out a long sigh through her nose and then begrudgingly followed. She hadn’t planned on getting a massage today, and gods only knew what a special treatment meant.

“So how long have you two been together for?” Alayaya asked as she led them through a dimly lit hallway.

“We’re not dating,” Arya said before Gendry could say something stupid.

“But this is a couple’s massage,” Alayaya said. “You’re going to see each other naked. Are you fine with that?”

Gendry opened his mouth to say something, but Arya got in first.

“It won’t be the first time,” she said.

The memory of Gendry naked in the moonlight flashed to the front of her mind. Gendry turned his head and fixed her with a funny look, almost as if he was silently asking her when Arya looked up at him and shrugged.

“Oh,” Alayaya said. “Well, good. Here are the showers.”

She pushed open a wooden door in front of her to reveal a bathroom that wasn’t quite oriental but neither quite the traditional Westerosi fashion. There were two showerheads, and no wall, and some folded robes with slippers laying near the door.

“Please, have a shower, and when you are ready, come through this door to your left,” Alayaya said. “I’ll make sure I have two of the best to take care of you.”

Gendry stepped through into the bathroom first and then held the door open for Arya.

“Thank you,” Arya said to both of them.

She stepped through the door, and when she heard the dull thud of wood on wood, she rounded on Gendry and glared up at him.

“Good one stupid,” she grumbled.

“How is this possibly my fault?” Gendry asked. “It’s your stupid certificate.”

“Hey!” Arya growled. “This was meant to be a nice gesture so you stopped moping and felt good for a day.”

“And now we’re getting a couple’s massage Arya,” Gendry said.

“Yeah, well, this is the last time I’m ever nice,” Arya sighed.

“So, what do we do?” Gendry asked.

Arya paused. There was a part of her that wanted to say to Gendry let’s just go home and forget this ever happened. But there was another part of her that had a different idea. A more daring idea.

“I mean, we’re here now aren’t we?” she asked. “Fuck it. Let’s do it.”

“Wait, what?!” Gendry exclaimed.

“You heard me, let’s do it,” Arya said. “What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Um, well, we see something neither of us will ever forget?” Gendry asked.

“Oh no, my oh so conservative mind is about to be ruined forever,” Arya drawled sarcastically. “Do you think I haven’t seen dicks before? I have literally felt yours. This is not more embarrassing than walking out of Ikea feeling like there’s a floodplain in my jeans.”

“For you maybe…” Gendry murmured.

“What are you so scared of?” Arya asked. “Did you have socks stuffed down there to make yourself feel bigger? Did you borrow cousin Renly’s strap because you’re a bit…”

Arya raised her left hand and extended her pinkie finger. The immediate blush that rushed into Gendry’s cheeks was enough to make her smirk victoriously.

“I did none of that,” Gendry spat.

“So what are you scared of then?” Arya asked. “Do tits give you the heebie-jeebies?”

“That doesn’t mean what you think it means,” Gendry stated.

“So what is it then?” Arya asked.

She placed her hands on her hips and stared up at Gendry.

“Because if you don’t tell me, I’m just going to strip off and get under that shower, then go into that room with or without you.”

Gendry stared at her with a look that Arya couldn’t figure out. She was pretty good at deciphering facial expressions, but Gendry was annoyingly a mystery to her sometimes. She didn’t have to guess for long what he was doing. Before she knew what was happening, Gendry’s shirt was up and over his head and flung onto the bench where the folded up robes were. Arya was frozen in place, with her eyes glued on his midriff. She couldn’t process what had just happened.

“What’s the matter?” Gendry asked. “Do tits give you the heebie-jeebies?”

“I hate you,” Arya said with a sigh.

She went to rip her own shirt off, then paused.

“Just keep your eyes to the front, Baratheon,” she teased.

Gendry snickered, then undid the clasp of his belt. Arya turned away from him and pulled her shirt over her head, and undid the button of her denim shorts. She jumped when something landed on her, and when she saw it was Gendry’s jeans, she turned around in a rage.

“Hey, watch it!” Arya yelped.

Gendry was standing there in his underwear and socks, and when he looked over his shoulder, Arya saw that hilariously cute blush had returned to his cheeks.

“Sorry, I was keeping my eyes to the front and didn’t look where…” Gendry began to say.

“Yeah right, you did that on purpose,” Arya grumbled.

“Do you want me to look at you while I get undressed?” Gendry asked.

Arya grunted and pulled her shorts down to her ankles.

“If it stops you throwing things at me, yes,” she muttered.

She looked up and saw Gendry’s blush had deepened, then also realised he hadn’t torn his eyes away from her.

“Hey! Eyes to the front!” she snapped.

Gendry turned his head, and Arya couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. She was comfortable in his presence, but she couldn’t quite figure out why. Maybe it was because he relaxed around her and showed her his true colours, or perhaps it was just because they got along effortlessly. Whatever it was, she liked it. She turned away from him and finished shedding her clothes, then very awkwardly fumbled her way to the showers until she felt the metal of the taps brush against her hand. She turned the taps on, and then stared at the tiled wall in front of her. The sound of another showerhead turning on made her glance to the side at Gendry, who was staring ahead very diligently.

“Can I ask you something?” she asked.

“You just did,” Gendry responded.

Arya huffed at his response, and then pooled the warm water of the shower in her hands. She splashed it over herself, then grabbed the bottle of body wash the parlour provided and lathered herself up with the strongly scented liquid.

“Why do you put up with me?” she asked.

“I don’t,” Gendry snapped back jokingly.

“Shut the fuck up,” Arya grumbled. “Seriously. I’m like the only girl you ever hang out with. What’s up with that?”

She glanced at him and saw his shoulders drop as he let out a small sigh.

“You really want to know?” he asked.

“Would I have asked if I didn’t?” Arya responded.

“You actually want to know,” Gendry said, almost as if he was about to laugh. “It’s because you treat me like a person and not a piece of meat.”

“How do you know that?” Arya asked.

“Because not once have you told me how you’d like to be held in my strong arms,” Gendry answered. “When we hang out, we talk about normal stuff. I feel like… like you care about me. Like it doesn’t matter who I am on the surface level, you’re more interested in what’s inside.”

“That makes me sound like I want to harvest your organs,” Arya interrupted.

“Maybe you do,” Gendry said wistfully. “But at least if you did, you’d have made me feel like I mattered before that. I know you’re not friends with me just because you think I’m hot. You’re not fake Arya. You know how other people look at me, and you’re the only person I know who thinks how others treat me is bullshit.”

Arya stared at the tiled wall again and let the hot water run over her. She breathed in the steam through her nose and then slowly exhaled.

“Is that what we are Gendry?” she asked. “Friends?”

She turned herself around, so she was facing him. When he glanced at her, his eyes skirted back to the wall, and Arya saw how his hands trembled. She knew he was nervous, and probably thinking at a million miles a minute, but she was hit by a surge of confidence and wasn’t about to back down now.

“Is that why you’re so tentative around me?” she asked. “Because we’re just friends?”

“No, it’s because you ran away last time,” Gendry said.

He lowered his head down, and Arya felt her heart ache. Those scars still hadn’t healed clearly, even though Gendry never really hinted they hadn’t. Arya shuffled her weight from foot to foot and resisted the temptation to run to Gendry and tell him how sorry she was.

“You know why though,” she said.

“Yeah, I was too intense,” Gendry murmured. “That’s why I’m so tentative Arya. I don’t want to lose our friendship.”

“Is that why we’re standing here naked in a massage parlour confessing to the things that hurt us most?” Arya asked. “Because our friendship is on the line?”

“It could be,” Gendry said. “If I make another mistake.”

“Why is it just you that can make mistakes?” Arya asked.

“I just have to…” Gendry began to say.

“What, be perfect?” Arya butted in. “I don’t want you to be perfect Gendry. I despise perfect. Sansa is perfect, do I look like I want Sansa’s world?”

“No…” Gendry answered.

“I want things to be real. Mistakes are how we grow, how we change for the better. Sometimes we need to make ill-informed choices in order to make better ones. We need to hurt so we can learn how to feel good. We need to take hits to learn how to fight. If you skate through life never taking a chance, never fucking up, how will you ever live?” Arya took a breath after her speech.

Gendry turned around, so he was partly facing her, but his lower half was angled so certain bits were obscured. He looked at her with an expression that showed just how tormented and fragmented he felt on the inside by this whole situation.

“What if I’m scared to?” he asked.

Arya stared at him, torn. She clenched her hands into loose fists, then released her grip over and over for what felt like an hour. She wanted to run to him and tell him it would be alright. But she also wanted to keep her distance in case that wasn’t what he wanted. But the longer she stood there, the harder it was to just stay still. Finally her resolve broke. She crossed the distance between them quickly but was careful not to slip mid-walk and split her head open on the tiles. That wouldn’t be very fitting, though she’d probably have a good laugh at it after the fact. Arya kept walking until she was close enough to grab Gendry’s face and pull him down to her level, and then she kissed him with every ounce of feeling she had in her heart. Gendry froze, then kissed her back and melted into her. He put his arms around her, but didn’t touch her inappropriately. It was a tender, raw moment, and it was one Arya would cherish purely because it felt so right. When Gendry broke the kiss, she whimpered in sadness and frustration. That stopped when he pressed his forehead against hers and just held her in silence. The temporary pang of loss was replaced with a warmth that Arya had never felt before. They just stood there, wordless, under the spray in each others arms.

“Hey,” Gendry said after a long moment of silence. “Aren’t we forgetting something?”

“What?” Arya asked.

It was then that she remembered where they were.

“Oh… Fuck,” she cursed.

“We should probably get in there,” Gendry said with a laugh.

“Yeah, fuck, how long did we stand there for?” Arya asked.

“Does it look like I have a watch on?” Gendry asked.

“I dunno what you have jammed up your ass,” Arya joked.

“Nothing!” Gendry exclaimed.

“Are you sure? You’d look cute with a plug with a gem on the end up there,” Arya said with a wink.

Gendry glowered at her, which made Arya laugh and throw her wet hair back over her shoulders.

“Alright alright, no plugs for you,” she conceded. “Leave that to me.”

“I can’t tell if you’re serious, or…” Gendry said cautiously.

“Guess you’ll have to wait and see,” Arya teased. “Now we should really get in there hey. They’re going to think we’re fucking in here or something.”

“I wonder if that happens a lot,” Gendry thought aloud.

“I don’t really want to know,” Arya said.

She reached out and turned the tap off, then returned back to her showerhead and cut off the water there as well. She turned and noticed Gendry was staring at her, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

“What happened to you not liking people treating you like a piece of meat?” Arya asked.

“I know, it’s just… Bloody Margaery was right,” he admitted.

Arya tilted her head to the right and kept her eyebrow raised.

“Mm?” she hummed.

“You do have a better butt than me,” Gendry teased.

“Oh, you’re so charming,” Arya said with a roll of her eyes.

“I know. I’m also twenty bucks poorer,” Gendry said.

He pulled a towel off of the hook where it was hanging and ruffled his hair.

“Wait. You made a bet with my sister’s girlfriend on who had the better butt?” Arya asked.

“Yup,” Gendry said.

“And you bet against me?” she said.

“Sure did,” Gendry said.

Arya straightened her head up, then walked over to Gendry and grabbed the other towel from the hook. She glowered up at him before she started to dry herself off.

“That’ll be the last time you ever do that, won’t it?” she teased.

Once she was dry, she pulled her robe on and tied the cord around her waist, before she stepped into the slippers. By the time she had turned around, Gendry had done the same. She smiled at him, then held her hand out for him to take.

“Ready?” she asked.

Gendry gently reached out and took her hand. Arya scoffed, then grabbed his hand aggressively and locked her fingers between his own.

“Fucking commit to it,” she teased. “So, ready?”

Gendry looked at her with a smile and then nodded, before he pulled the door open for them both.

“Ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said on Tumblr, this is the end of this fic. Thank you all for reading and I can't waitn to bring out my new projects!

**Author's Note:**

> I have a tumblr now, come find my trash ass at https://starks-deserved-better.tumblr.com/


End file.
